The lawyer gave the reason for the inability to achieve the payment of wages in cash

It is extremely difficult to get a salary in cash in Russia today due to the peculiarities of legislation, judicial practice and economic policy of the state. This was announced on March 10 by Mikhail Merkulov, Director of the KSK Group's Organizational Development practice.

"The state is on the side of employers, which is actively fighting the cash flow in the economy. Salaries are the main source of cash due to their transfer from non—cash accounts of organizations to employees," the lawyer said in an interview with the Prime agency.

According to him, formally the employee's right to receive a salary in cash exists, however it is fixed in rather vague norms of the labor legislation. In particular, Part 3 of Article 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation ("Procedure, place and time of payment of wages") provides that wages are paid to an employee, as a rule, at the place of work or transferred to a credit institution. This formulation, as the expert noted, allows employers to legally correctly refuse cash payments.

In addition, judicial practice also helps to strengthen the position of employers. Judicial authorities consider the employer as an economically stronger side of the employment relationship. As a result, if the organization does not have a cash desk, the employee has practically no real tools to achieve the payment of wages in cash.

An additional complication is the moment when the employee declares his desire to receive money in cash. If such a requirement is announced before signing the employment contract, the form of payment can be immediately fixed in the document by agreement of the parties. However, as the expert notes, in practice such situations are extremely rare.

The expert also noted that banks encourage companies to switch to cashless payments through salary projects. Financial organizations offer employers more favorable credit conditions and other benefits if payments to employees are made to bank cards.

According to Merkulov, such a policy is in line with the course of the government and the Central Bank, aimed at reducing the share of cash payments and combating the shadow economy. In this system, the interests of employees who want to receive a salary in cash are not a priority.

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On March 9, TASS reported that in December 2025, the number of Russian regions with an average salary of 150,000 rubles increased to 12, while in November there were only four. So, in Moscow it amounted to 288,524 rubles, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug — 281,482 rubles, in the Magadan Region — 249,335 rubles, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug — 216,795 rubles, in the Kamchatka Territory — 206,676 rubles.

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