One of the most pressing issues that interests Russians remains: how realistic it is to expect an increase in the monetary allowance of military personnel and military pensions in 2019. Not so long ago, an exhaustive answer was received. The information came from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, starting from the current year and up to 2020, all the above categories will be indexed annually in accordance with the current inflation rate, which today corresponds to 4%. One characteristic feature has been noticed that if this year indexation was carried out at the beginning of the year, then in the future the government intends to carry it out not earlier than autumn. This means that in 2019 we should not expect any increase until mid-autumn.

Injustice will be removed

According to the Duma Committee, which specializes in defense support, it became clear that today the salaries of Russian military personnel have not been indexed in full, but only by 50%, and military pensions by only 20%. His proposal is noteworthy and concerns early indexation, which is scheduled for nine months earlier and to ensure an increase in the real volume of military pension payments.

The head of the Duma Defense Committee, Vladimir Shamanov, submitted a proposal for consideration at the government level on the need to allocate additional funds from the state budget aimed at increasing financial support for military personnel and military pensions no later than 2019. To date, based on the adopted draft federal budget, it is planned to index military salaries and pensions by the prescribed 4.3%, according to the most realistic inflation forecast, but only from October 1, 2019. The committee, headed by Shamanov, considered it necessary to revise the timing of indexation for January 1, 2019, and to provide military pensioners with an additional 2% supplement, which will be paid in excess of the established inflation barrier. The committee members came to this conclusion based on federal funding for 2019, as well as on the basis of the planning period of 2020-2021.

As everyone already knows, the country's leadership has already indexed the salaries of military personnel and law enforcement agencies. This happened after a five-year break in indexing. It was successfully carried out on January 1st. However, in the period from 2019 to 2021, indexation will be carried out, but only from October 1, which will allow the budget to save a lot.

“Based on the position of the Defense Committee, then the increase in salaries for the civilian population, as well as the financial support for military personnel and persons equated to these categories at the level predicted by inflation, should be carried out from the beginning of the year, namely from January 1, 2019, and not as proposed earlier from October 1, 2019,” the proposal states.

The Committee did not give specific figures on how much additional funds such good intentions could cost. So far, the Ministry of Finance has not responded to this proposal.

What we have, in fact, representatives of the defense committee acted in the interests of not only employees of their department, but also those whose status is equated to the military, and therefore employees of internal affairs, the Federal Penitentiary Service and many other organizations.

Rising oil prices and a recovery in economic growth could put military salaries back on the agenda in 2018. Earlier, the government suspended the indexation of monetary allowance, which was due to the lack of free resources in the federal budget. Officials continue to discuss a possible format for increasing salaries, which will depend on the development of the economic situation.

The economic crisis forced the government to optimize the expenditures of the state budget. Including the authorities froze the indexation of the monetary allowance of the military. Next year, officials plan to resume the annual indexation of salaries, which became possible due to the improvement in the economic situation.

The growth of oil prices above 50 dollars per barrel. ensured the growth of domestic budget revenues. As a result, the government received an additional financial resource, which will allow it to increase spending on the monetary allowance of the military. However, the extent of future increases in military salaries in 2018 remains uncertain.

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance propose to increase the salaries of the military by 4%, which corresponds to economic realities. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov emphasizes that future indexation is in line with the forecast inflation rate. However, the deputies do not agree with such an increase in monetary allowance.

The State Duma considers such indexation insufficient, emphasizing the long period of a moratorium on wage increases. The monetary allowance of the military has not been reviewed for 5 years, which does not correspond to the role played by the armed forces of the Russian Federation. During this period, the rise in prices amounted to about 46%, which negatively affected the well-being of military personnel. The real incomes of the military decreased by a third, the deputies emphasize. This dynamic is contrary to the goals set out in the presidential decrees in May.

Controversial Promotion: Seeking Justice

The monetary allowance of military personnel should correspond to the average level in the leading sectors of the economy. These obligations of the authorities are recorded in the May decrees. If in 2014 military salaries exceeded this level by 10%, then in 2016 the situation changed. Salaries in the financial sector reached 80 thousand rubles, and in the energy sector they increased to 78 thousand rubles. At the same time, the salary of the military remained at the level of 62 thousand rubles.

Raising military salaries in 2018 will require significant resources, with recent news signaling the government's intention to increase social spending. The authorities are forced to take into account the approaching presidential elections, increasing pensions and salaries of state employees. In addition, there are alternative tools to increase the pay of military personnel.

Despite the lack of indexation, the monetary allowance of the military increased due to various allowances. Including the military can count on an increase in salaries for the command of units or for good physical training. In the latter case, the allowance can reach 80% of the salary. In addition, the military can count on annual bonuses related to budget savings.

The final decision of the government on the future indexation of salaries of military personnel will be made based on the development of the economic situation. Experts are considering several scenarios that await the Russian economy next year.

Prospects for the Russian economy

Changes in oil prices remain the dominant factor for the Russian budget, experts emphasize. The growth of oil prices to 55-57 dollars per barrel. increases the revenue side of the budget. As a result, the government receives the resource necessary for the full implementation of the May decrees.

The positive dynamics of external factors allows the domestic economy to move to growth. Despite low GDP growth rates (between 1.5-2.5%) next year, officials emphasize overcoming the negative consequences of the crisis.

A further increase in the cost of a barrel may lead to a more large-scale indexation of monetary allowances. The government will be able to compensate for part of the losses that the military suffered as a result of the moratorium on wage increases.

The pessimistic scenario allows for a new stage in the decline in oil prices. In addition, analysts do not exclude the expansion of existing sanctions, which will negatively affect economic growth. In this case, officials will not be able to allocate additional funds to increase the salaries of the military. At the same time, the existing system of allowances remains in force, which will make it possible to compensate for the decline in real incomes of servicemen.

For five years, the indexation of the monetary allowance of the military remains frozen. The Ministry of Finance proposes to increase military salaries next year by 4%. Representatives of the department believe that such indexation corresponds to economic realities.

The State Duma believes that the indexation at the level of 4% is underestimated. During the moratorium, prices increased by 46%, which led to a significant decrease in the real incomes of military personnel.

In addition to indexation, military salaries will depend on the existing system of allowances, which will remain unchanged in 2018.

See video about salary increase in 2018:

Today you can read in the media or the Internet, as well as hear on TV and radio, a variety of opinions, find out all kinds of assumptions about raising wages, both for the military and for teachers, doctors, other state employees and civil servants, and other professions, but not the official position of our government.

Until now, we don’t know for sure whether there will be indexation next year, whether wages and pensions will be increased - there are rumors that everyone will be indexed to the level of official inflation, which should be 4 to 5% by the end of the current year, but no more . But you won't be fed up with rumors, all those interested want to know the details, the official position of the government, what and how, when and for how much?

Are the salaries of Russian military personnel objective?

We all understand the complexity of the economic situation in which Russia finds itself today, but the leadership of our country should also understand the average layman that it is impossible to “become poorer” indefinitely, because in the past three years, ruthless inflation with rising prices ahead of it has made the majority of Russians poor.

Those one-time compensation payments to pensioners in the form of 5,000 rubles (as at the beginning of this year), or indexation of state employees, including the military, police, to the level of official inflation (far from real), does not solve the issue, at least maintaining the purchasing power of our salaries are about the same.

Our country, all of us, and last but not least our leadership, love to remind about the power of our army, we unanimously declare that the people and the Army are united. But when the question comes down to specifics, here we immediately forget about it and then we will explain what we wanted to tell you about, what to focus your attention on.

As you know, everything is known in comparison, so we decided to compare the level of our respect for the Russian army not in words, but not in deeds, for which we took from open sources the comparative salaries of our military personnel and the same from other countries. We took to compare salaries - privates and sergeants from Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the USA and Germany.

Why did we do this, but for the simple reason that we are used to comparing the level of income not in order to correct the situation, but simply to deceive people, for example, we are given a comparison in Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Belarus, Vietnam or Pakistan. But why do we need such comparisons, this is another "blurring of the eyes", we think it would be more useful to compare the level of salaries of Russian military personnel with other, more prosperous countries, which we will do.

So, in Russia, an ordinary contract soldier receives about 20 thousand rubles a month (service life up to 2 years) and, depending on the place of service, junior sergeant and sergeant 33 - 42 thousand of the same our rubles, respectively (this is with all the "cheat" "- length of service, titles, all kinds of allowances, etc.) - remember these figures of 20, 33 and 42 thousand rubles, now we will compare them with other countries, which we mentioned a little higher ...

Hungary

Private - 900 euros (62,000 rubles)
Sergeant - 1200 euros (83,000 rubles)

Czech

Private - 1030 euros (71,000 rubles)
Sergeant - 1450 euros (100,000 rubles)

USA

Private - $1900 (112,000 rubles)
Sergeant - $3,000 (177,000 rubles)

Germany

Private - 1800 euros (124,000 rubles)
Sergeant - 2500 euros (172,000 rubles)

Please note that far from rich Hungary and the Czech Republic, in comparison with "rich" Russia, pay their military personnel an order of magnitude (many times) more than ours, not to mention Germany or the United States. This comparison, of course, does not paint our country and does not honor it. But this is a separate conversation, but our topic is the salary of Russian military personnel next year, how much are they going to increase it and whether they will raise it at all, index to what level, official or real inflation, rising cost of living?

Will military salaries be increased by 4% in 2018 or?

Surely this figure will turn out to be more or less plausible and exactly the one that the Russian military should be guided by next year, there are many good reasons for this and quite understandable reasons, which you will learn about later...

Salary increase for the military in 2018, when will it be increased, by how much?

In our entire information space, you can hear about the stable and high wages of Russian military personnel, but is this really the case, we have already given you an example above. As for the future of 2018, will there be an increase in salaries for the Russian military, will the military increase salaries, salaries, length of service, allowances, etc., by how much and when, today this is, if not a secret, then at least a secret that our government does not want to share with anyone.

What is known at the moment is approximately that wages in virtual terms will be increased by one and a half times, but for the period from 2012, as you will confusingly say, but the way it is. We are now being offered to be satisfied with rumors that the military in 2018 will receive wages one and a half times higher than what they once had in some year, but without any specific figures and percentages.

We would like to know by what percentage the salaries of the military will be increased in 2018, when there will be an increase in the salaries of Russian military personnel, because the information that is available, and this is indexation to the official level, that is, not real inflation, does not fit in with the concept of a real increase in military salaries.

Military salary this year

The average salary of an ordinary soldier of the Russian army this year was 20 thousand rubles, this is with all possible allowances, and the "bare salary" (with material assistance and a bonus for conscientious service to the fatherland) barely reached 15 thousand rubles + 5 thousand pay for the title , so we reach the figure of 20 thousand rubles. Taking into account all the deductions due (13% as a minimum), a Russian ordinary soldier under a contract receives about 17.4 thousand rubles in his hands - judge for yourself whether this is a lot or a little ...

We think these salaries for the Russian military do not correspond in any way to how proud we are of our army or how we are called to do it, rather, they cause, if not regret, then at least surprise, as in such a rich country and such meager salaries for the military. Can we really rely on the fact that the best of the best will go to serve in the Russian army under a contract, probably and of course not!

We believe, and adhere to the common opinion, that in the conditions of modern military equipment, which is becoming more and more complex every day, literate young people who have a high level of knowledge, they are technically literate and, above all, technologically, versed in computers and more.

But is it really possible to believe that a self-respecting guy who earns several times more in a “civilian” and has excellent future prospects will go to serve in the Russian army for 20 or 30 thousand rubles, the answer is no. Such a young man can only be driven into the army by "force", but under the contract he will not serve for such a salary, this can literally be guessed in 99 cases out of 100.

Agree, and you are probably of the same opinion that the days when the army needed "cannon fodder", that is, the number of warriors who will fight in open confrontation with the enemy, have long since passed. The modern army provides for the conduct of hostilities at a remote distance, when they are conducted by complex military equipment, and not by a direct clash of people from one side and the other.

This requires qualified specialists of a high level of training, and not a huge number of useless warriors - now you can't throw hats on anyone! But where to get such specialists, you ask - they must, of course, be sought out among promising Russian youth, lured to serve in the army under a contract with attractive conditions, social guarantees and all sorts of privileges, and so on.

It is among young Russian people that we need to look for those who are ready, first of all, from the technical side of preparedness, to perform complex tasks, and most importantly, are capable of learning. But again, for this, Russia needs to radically change its attitude towards the military, revise their salaries, and make a truly responsible decision.

Salary of the military 2018 - will the military salaries be increased?

If we return to the question of the topic of raising the salaries of the military in 2018, then one thing is known that the salaries of the military will be increased at least by the level of official inflation, and this is within 4-5 percent. Whether there will be a larger increase and by how much, there is no such official information today, perhaps it will appear as we usually do, already at the beginning of the year, when it will be clear with the filling of the federal budget.

In general, experts are talking about the next one - 2018, this is the year not only of the presidential elections, for which significant sums from the federal budget will be spent, but also the holding of the World Cup will draw a considerable figure out of it, and these are all expenses, but an increase After all, no income is expected, for example, due to the rise in the cost of energy resources, our traditional export products of oil and gas.

Perhaps Russia will receive some profit from it (holding the 2018 FIFA World Cup), but that will happen later, and at the beginning of the year there will probably not be money for a significant increase in wages, not only for the military, but for sure for everyone else - pensioners , state employees, civil servants and so on, to all those who receive their wages from the state budget.

But this is the opinion of specialists and analysts, as it will actually be unknown, at least we have already talked about this, there is no official information on this matter, and this is a bad signal, because we know how the leadership of our country likes to anticipate events such as increases in pensions or wages, announce it in advance.

The indexation of the monetary allowance of the military, which has not been carried out for five years, will cost the federal budget 300 billion rubles in the next three years. By 2020, the state will spend about 14% of the budget on military salaries

Photo: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

The first indexation in six years of the salaries of the military and security forces will cost the budget 67 billion rubles in 2018, and in the next two years, when indexation continues, additional budget expenditures for these purposes will increase to 83.9 billion and 148.4 billion rubles. . accordingly, follows from the government's amendments to the second reading of the draft budget. Thus, an increase in the salaries of the military in 2018-2020 will require a total of almost 300 billion rubles from the state.

In 2018, the budget will spend 2.27 trillion rubles on the payment of monetary allowances to military personnel and persons equated to them in status. (13.8% of total budget expenditures), and this is only in the open part. The non-estimable share of expenses for payments to the military and security forces goes through secret budget items, follows from the amendments. By 2020, open spending on military allowances will reach 2.39 trillion rubles. (13.9% of the total budget), follows from the draft budget and proposed amendments to it.

The money for indexation was allocated from the "presidential reserve" - ​​847 billion rubles, originally reserved in the draft budget in the "National Economy" section for "individual decisions of the president."

Who will be indexed

The fact that the monetary allowance of the military and equivalent categories will begin to be indexed by 4% (the forecast level of inflation) was mentioned in the materials for the draft budget submitted in early October, but the price of this decision for the treasury was not disclosed. By law, employees of the internal affairs bodies, the Russian Guard, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the state fire service are equated to military personnel. The servicemen also include employees of the FSB, the FSO and the Foreign Intelligence Service, a representative of the Ministry of Finance explained to RBC.

Payments to the military and security forces will grow, as will the salaries of public sector employees not covered by the May decrees of the president, federal civil servants and parliamentarians, as well as judges, prosecutors and employees of the Investigative Committee - all of them are scheduled to be indexed at 4% per year, which has not been carried out for several years .

Vasily Zatsepin, head of the military economics laboratory at the Gaidar Institute, supports raising the salaries of both the military and civil servants. “The standard of living has stopped, and some believe that it has fallen. It is possible that before the indexation freeze, the salaries of generals increased tenfold, but little has changed for the rank and file sergeants, which may be related to the current problems with the recruitment of so-called contract soldiers, ”he said. The quality of budget planning may improve if the economy manages to switch to automatic annual wage indexation. “To do this, we have to get used to the factor of reducing inflation, which is still new for us,” he said.

On the other hand, Ilya Sokolov, an expert of the CSR, considers it inappropriate to equally index the maintenance of state employees and the military in the conditions of the latter's transition to a contractual payment system. “Once upon a time, military personnel received less than the average salary in the economy, but after the army reform was carried out in 2010-2011 and their salaries were significantly increased, additional indexation lost its meaning. The same applies to preferential mortgages, which state employees do not have,” he says.

Indexation is not fixed for 2019 and 2020

The cost of indexing the salaries of the military and everyone else would be even higher if the government did not decide to move the indexation date in 2019 and 2020 to October 1 (the next salary increase is scheduled for January 1, 2018).

The law on the monetary allowance of military personnel stipulates that their salaries are subject to annual indexation for inflation in accordance with the law on the federal budget, but this rule was suspended from January 1, 2014. The suspension expires on January 1, 2018 - accordingly, the government returns to the implementation of the relevant provision from the law on military allowances (no separate law is needed).

Since it is written in the law on monetary allowance that indexation is carried out in accordance with the budget law, it means that next year, when the government adopts a new “rolling” budget for three years, indexation figures in 2019 and 2020 may change depending on up-to-date inflation data. And the price growth forecast may well change: for example, in 2017 the Ministry of Economic Development now expects a figure of 2.5-2.8%, although it originally predicted 3.8%.

The military is not enough

Earlier, a RBC source in the State Duma and a source in the Ministry of Defense said that the possibility of indexing military salaries to a higher level was being discussed. On the insufficient increase in allowances, the Defense Committee of the State Duma in its opinion on the draft budget. Committee deputies emphasized that during the time when salaries were not indexed, prices in the country rose by 46%, the cost of the minimum set of food products rose by almost 60%.

In order to ensure that the salaries of military personnel do not fall below the average salaries in the leading sectors of the economy, the Ministry of Defense, in the course of preparing the draft federal budget, developed and sent to the Ministry of Finance two options for calculating the indexation of the monetary allowance of military personnel, the defense committee said in the conclusion, but these proposals "were not reflected » in the final draft budget. How much it was proposed to index the salaries of the military of the Ministry of Defense, the document does not say.

“The profile committee of the State Duma on defense will consider amendments for the second reading at a meeting on November 9, after which it will be possible to comment on the proposals of the Ministry of Finance,” said Vladimir Shamanov, head of the committee, to RBC. According to him, it is very difficult to agree on a common position within the committee. “The process is difficult. We have all four factions represented, and there is no common understanding yet,” Shamanov added.

In total, indexation will affect at least 2.7 million people: now the maximum number of Armed Forces in Russia is 1.9 million people (of which 1.03 million are military personnel), employees of internal affairs bodies are set at 904 thousand people, employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service - 225 thousand, fire service - 251 thousand. The number of the Russian Guard, as its commander-in-chief Viktor Zolotov told Interfax, exceeds 340 thousand people. Taking into account the civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, whose wages will also be indexed by 4%, the number of persons covered will exceed 3.5 million.

The Ministry of Finance did not explain what the average allowance for military personnel and equivalent categories was, redirecting the request to the relevant departments. In January 2016, in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda, Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova reported that in 2015 the average level of allowance for servicemen amounted to 62.2 thousand rubles.

What will the money go to

Military personnel will receive the most of the additional expenses in the next three years - 73.3 billion rubles, follows from the amendments to the open part of the expenses under the National Defense section.

About 6 billion rubles. it is proposed to allocate to increase salaries for investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee, conducting a preliminary investigation (the FSB also has such powers), and the same amount for those who are engaged in operational activities in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Penitentiary Service. 27 billion rubles are provided for raising the salaries of employees of the Russian Guard. for three years, and employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service - 20.4 billion rubles. In the amendments, 11.4 billion rubles are allocated for indexation in the subdivisions of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in the Investigative Committee - almost 8 billion rubles. About 59 billion rubles associated with the indexation of monetary allowances goes through closed items of expenditure, which cannot be tracked. An increase in spending on the maintenance of military personnel by 300 billion rubles, or 0.3% of GDP, creates risks of an incorrect structure of government spending, says Ilya Sokolov.

With the participation of: Inna Sidorkova

It just so happened that in recent years, the monetary allowance for the military has been increasing only on the eve of presidential elections. Until 2018, the previous increase was in 2012, and since 2014 indexation was generally frozen by a separate law for 4 years until 2018. That normative act ceased to work on January 1 of this year, and the authorities again returned to indexing the allowances of military personnel. An increase in pay for the military in 2018: the latest news on indexation, by how much the salaries of military personnel will increase.

There will be no more indexation of monetary allowance in 2018

In January 2018, there was an increase in the monetary allowance for military personnel. Indexation was carried out at 4%, according to inflation forecasts for this year. This is the only indexation of military allowances planned for this year.

Naturally, the lion's share of the military really feels the decline in real incomes. Over the 6 years that have passed since the previous increase, prices have become much higher, and the Russian currency has depreciated almost 2 times on the world market, which naturally affected the rise in the cost of living for Russian citizens.

One way or another, in terms of the burden on the state treasury, the salaries of military personnel are a large item of expenditure. And just like that, the authorities are not able to compensate for the rise in the cost of living for them.

In fact, the only thing that the authorities now offer the military is to agree to the allowance that they have at the moment. Yes, in real terms, the amount is less than a few years ago. However, in fairness, this is still more against the background of the salaries of ordinary workers, and even more so of pensioners.

In the fall of 2017, in the process of preparing the budget for 2018-2020, the government introduced articles to increase allowances for military personnel for the following years.

The military should be aware that in subsequent years, the increase in allowances will take place only in October.

On October 1, military salaries are usually indexed, 2018 is an exception, since January indexation has already become the first in 6 years. In 2019-2020 indexation of allowances for the military should take place according to plan, in October, so in fact the next increase will be only in 1.5 years.

The percentage of indexation, previously budgeted by the government, is again 4%, at the level of inflation expected by the government. In 2017, in fact, inflation was even less - 2.5%. In 2018, it will most likely be around the desired 4%.

However, it should be noted: 4% for 2019-2020. - the figure is approximate and has not yet been reflected in financial documents. The government will introduce specific figures to the budget when the real inflation in Russia in 2018 for the entire reporting period is clear.

As RBC wrote in 2017, for the period 2018-2020. the authorities will allocate an additional 300 billion rubles to increase allowances for servicemen. Which means that every 7th ruble of the budget will go to their salaries, which will amount to 14% of government spending.

Note that in this case, everything that we say about the military applies not only to them, but also to many other law enforcement agencies that are equated with the military in Russia:

• police,
• National Guard,
• FSIN,
• state fire service
• Foreign Intelligence Service.