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- To add income: the real average salary in the Russian Federation turned out to be a third lower than the official one
To add income: the real average salary in the Russian Federation turned out to be a third lower than the official one
The gap between average and median salaries (when one half gets more and the other half gets less) in Russia was 35%, Izvestia calculated. The average is almost 100 thousand rubles, while the median is just over 70 thousand. The growth of the average figure is largely due to high earnings in certain industries and regions, while the majority receive significantly less. Despite the fact that the median is already used to calculate the minimum wage, the authorities still focus on the average in key economic estimates. This can create the illusion of increased prosperity, increase distrust of statistics, and push some of the employed into the shadows. Why this happened is in the Izvestia article.
How much do Russians actually earn
The median salary in Russia in April 2025 was 73.4 thousand rubles, according to the latest data from Rosstat. This indicator divides employees into two equal groups: half receive more than this amount, the rest receive less. The service publishes such calculations once a year and with a noticeable lag.
For comparison, the average earnings in the same month reached 99.4 thousand rubles. It is defined as the sum of all payments divided by the number of employees. The difference between the two indicators is about 35%, estimated by Izvestia. The editorial board sent requests to Rosstat and the Ministry of Labor.
The operational data of Sberindex gives a different picture. According to the service, the median in April was 58 thousand rubles, almost 1.7 times lower than the average estimate of Rosstat. As of November 2025, the national average was 98,000, while the median, according to Sberindex, was 61,000. Thus, the gap reaches 1.6 times.
The reason for the discrepancies is in the methodology and revenue structure, explained the deputy general director of the service "Work.<url>" by Alexander Veterkov. The arithmetic mean is sensitive to "outliers": low salaries and multimillion-dollar bonuses of top managers are included in the calculation. As a result, several very high payouts noticeably "pull up" the final figure.
The median, on the contrary, shows the income of a "typical" employee, the expert continued. If half of the employed receive less than a certain amount, and the rest receive more, this boundary is closer to the reality of the majority. A significant excess of the average over the median indicates a strong differentiation: there are few people with high earnings, but their incomes are many times higher.
It is incorrect to focus only on the average indicator, SuperJob agrees. It resembles the "average temperature in the hospital" and is distorted by extreme values. Comparing the incomes of people from different industries and with different skill levels through a single average figure is difficult and often pointless, they added.
Average earnings are calculated by dividing the salary fund by the number of employees or by the time actually worked — for a month, quarter or year, said Yulia Dolzhenkova, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. With this method, it is enough to increase payments to management so that the overall figure increases, even if the incomes of others have not changed.
If the wage gap were small, the average and median would differ slightly, said Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. In conditions of high differentiation, it is the median level that more accurately reflects the real situation of most families.
Where are the highest salaries in Russia
It is generally assumed that the highest incomes are concentrated in the extractive industries. However, this is true primarily for the average indicator, noted Natalia Milchakova from Freedom Finance Global. According to her, the median is led by managers, including top managers, financiers, consultants and IT specialists. Transport and logistics are also among the leaders. The lowest values are in agriculture, tourism, retail, and the public sector — medicine, culture, and education, where salaries are either low or there is no strong differentiation.
According to SuperJob, IT professionals currently have the highest median incomes. In Moscow, the top 5 developers include Kotlin (up to 370 thousand rubles per month), Go and Rust (350 thousand each), Java, Scala and Angular (about 330 thousand). Orthopedic dentists receive comparable amounts.
At the other extreme is cleaning. According to the service, the pharmacy orderly receives about 50 thousand rubles, the cleaner — 55 thousand, the junior medical staff — about 65 thousand.
At the same time, drivers and couriers have the highest salary expectations in 2025 - 111 thousand rubles per month, builders and repairmen — 101 thousand, said Roman Gubanov, Director of Development at Avito Rabota. Lower values are traditionally found in mass administrative and service professions.: The entry threshold is lower there, but the competition is higher, he explained.
The regional gap also persists. The highest median rates are in Chukotka, Khanty—Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District and Moscow, Natalia Milchakova added. In the North, this is due to the extraction of oil, gas and gold and northern surcharges, in the capital — to the concentration of finance, IT and management positions.
The anti—leaders are the republics of the North Caucasus and a number of agrarian regions, where the median is often 30-40 thousand rubles. At the same time, as noted by Ahmed Yusupov, an economist and partner at the Goldman Agency communications agency, in Chukotka it exceeds 170 thousand, and in the Magadan region the average income is over 244 thousand. This polarization explains why the average figure does not reflect the full picture.
What does the calculation of the average salary affect?
It is the median salary that is used in calculating the minimum wage, said Yulia Dolzhenkova from the University of Finance. It is set at a level not lower than 48% of the median for the previous year.
The average indicator, according to the expert, is needed for other tasks: assessing the overall level of income, comparing the effectiveness of companies, comparing the growth rates of wages and productivity, as well as for industry and regional analysis.
The importance of the median in the study of income is also indicated by the International Labor Organization, the professor recalled. Ideally, both indicators should converge over time.
There is also a third metric, modal salary, which is the most common value in the sample. First, the most common level of earnings in an industry or profession is determined, and then coefficients are calculated based on it, taking into account qualifications and other factors, said Olga Belenkaya, head of the Macroeconomic analysis Department at Finam.
For a complete picture, according to the expert, it is important to take into account all three indicators, however, in Russian and world practice, they are more often focused on the average.
The average salary plays a key role in macroeconomics, for example, when calculating insurance premiums and GDP, said Alexander Veterkov from "Work.ru". But it doesn't answer the question of how much a typical employee earns, and it can create the illusion of higher well-being than half of the employees have.
The average indicator is also convenient for monthly monitoring and tax control, said Ahmed Yusupov from Goldman Agency. The Federal Tax Service compares the companies' payroll with it, identifying gray schemes. However, focusing social policy only on the average value is fraught with an increase in hidden poverty and the expansion of shadow employment, which subsequently threatens to increase pressure on the budget, the expert believes.
Methodologically, the use of averages in accounting for citizens' incomes is not entirely correct, but this practice has developed historically, said Darina Medvednikova, a junior researcher at the Institute of Applied Economic Research at the Presidential Academy.
For an objective assessment of income, calculations should be carried out for individual social and demographic groups, says Olga Lebedinskaya, Associate Professor of Statistics at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. With a healthy economic development, the median salary should grow at a rate close to labor productivity and outstrip inflation, providing a real increase in well-being.
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