The expert named the approximate amounts of earnings of Russians in 2026

Despite the increase in official salaries, Russians still do not feel like they are part of the statistics. In 2026, the average nominal accrued salary in the country exceeded 100,000 rubles, but less than a third of the population receives income above this mark. Mikhail Tuzov, Director of Analytics at Adviros HR company, told Izvestia on June 7 about the reasons for this discrepancy between the figures and the real feelings of citizens.

According to him, the official average salary is the arithmetic mean of all employee benefits before taxes. However, for a more objective assessment of the situation, specialists also use median and modal salaries. If the average figure exceeds 100 thousand rubles, then the median salary is about 60 thousand rubles, that is, half of working Russians receive less than this amount.

"One of the reasons for the discrepancy between statistics and perception is the peculiarities of income accounting. The average figure includes large payments under civil law contracts, and also does not reflect the earnings structure of many Russians who combine their main job with project employment. An additional impact is the growth in the number of self—employed: today their number exceeds 15 million people, and the total income has already exceeded 3.1 trillion rubles," the expert explained.

Correspondence rate: student activity in the labor market has increased sixfold

Why do young people go to work en masse and how it can harm the economy

According to him, the highest earnings in 2026 remain in the extractive industry, heavy manufacturing and the IT sector. Employers also offer high incomes for the shift method of work: the median salary for such vacancies reaches 130 thousand rubles. However, as Tuzov explained, when converted to a regular calendar month, taking into account inter-watch rest, such earnings become comparable to the incomes of qualified specialists in large cities.

At the same time, the salary expectations of Russians are at the level of about 80 thousand rubles. Instead of mass salary indexation, companies are increasingly relying on targeted retention of the most valuable employees. In addition, there is a gradual transition of workers from small businesses to large companies that are able to offer more stable working conditions and competitive incomes.

"The main drivers of wage growth in 2026 remain inflation and a shortage of specialists in certain market segments, primarily skilled workers and engineers. Companies understand how difficult it is to replace experienced employees, so they try to retain key personnel. However, cost optimization has already begun in a number of industries, including IT and small businesses, which is holding back overall wage growth," Tuzov said.

On April 29, Avito Rabota reported that the highest-paid office specialists in Russia in the first quarter of 2026 were data analysts, who were offered an average of about 168 thousand rubles per month. In second place in terms of revenue were business analysts who study the processes and performance of companies, identifying growth points.