Working moments: almost a million Russians have been removed from shadow employment
In 2025, about 980,000 Russian citizens were able to withdraw from informal employment. The work was carried out in cooperation with regional authorities, said Mikhail Ivankov, head of Rostrud. Izvestia investigated what measures were used to bring almost 1 million people out of the shadows, as well as what steps are planned further to reduce shadow employment.
Official employment
Interdepartmental commissions and municipal groups have been established in Russia to combat illegal employment, which include representatives of various levels of government, including Rostrud. They work according to methodological recommendations and conduct a large-scale information campaign explaining the risks of shadow employment to citizens, the Rostrud press service told Izvestia.
Since 2025, there has been an open register of employers who violate the law, which includes illegal employment. Rostrud applies a risk-based approach using special indicators that identify the substitution of labor relations. These tools are constantly being improved, and thanks to increased control, about 980,000 employees were legalized in 2025.
Working with an official salary at the minimum wage level, and the rest "in an envelope", seems beneficial only to the employer, Maria Ivatkina, an expert on the NIFI project of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, "My Finances.Russian Federation". For an employee, this is a deceptive advantage, which in fact involves serious risks.
The main disadvantage is the lack of protection. If the employer stops paying the unofficial part of the income, it will be almost impossible to prove anything, since only official documents are taken into account.
— The future pension also suffers, — the expert reminded. — Contributions are calculated only from the "white" salary. The smaller it is, the lower the pension payments will be, so it is important to think about the future in advance.
In addition, with a "gray" salary, it is more difficult to receive tax deductions, since a person does not pay taxes in full and takes longer to repay money for housing, medical treatment or education.
Informal employment among the self-employed has been widespread for a long time, Andrei Pokida, director of the Presidential Academy's ION Socio-political Monitoring Research Center, told Izvestia. 5-10 years ago, about half of them worked outside the legal field. But after the introduction of the NAP regime, the situation improved: the share of informal employment decreased by two to three times.
— Now the self—employed are those for whom this is the main income, and those who combine it with employment. According to the data at the beginning of the year, about 12.7 million people have already legalized their activities and use NAP most often as their main source of income," he said.
Key decisions
It was possible to bring almost a million people out of the "shadow" due to comprehensive control measures and business incentives, Vladislav Bukharsky, Associate director for sovereign and Regional ratings at Expert RA agency, told Izvestia.
"One of the key tools was the transition to a risk—based model: instead of mass inspections, risk indicators (nine in total) were introduced, which automatically detect violations, for example, with salaries below the minimum wage for more than 60 employees or a sharp reduction in the wage fund by 80%," he stressed.
Additionally, a register of unscrupulous employers has been introduced since January 1, 2025. Getting into it means serious restrictions: a ban on state support, participation in public procurement, and increased attention from the prosecutor's office and tax authorities. This has increased the pressure on businesses using unofficial schemes.
According to the expert, a preventive approach played an important role: interdepartmental commissions, established by the law of 2023, work with employers without fines, explaining the consequences and helping to legalize employment. At the same time, administrative responsibility remains — fines for substitution of labor relations, as well as additional tax charges with fines of up to 40% and the risk of criminal liability in major cases.
— Informal employment is most common in a number of industries, — said Vladislav Bukharsky. — Of the 15.1 million people in the informal sector, 25.4% (3.8 million) are employed, in particular, in trade, 14.2% (2.1 million) — in agriculture, 10.5% (1.6 million) — in transport. In total, this is almost 70%, and about 13% is accounted for by other services.
The regions have become key participants in the process, he is sure. In 2025, a new management system was built: the methods of the Ministry of Labor were tested in pilot regions and distributed further. KPIs have been introduced locally to reduce shadow employment, employers are called to commissions, and if they refuse to legalize the materials, they are transferred to the prosecutor's office.
Further work is fixed in the plan for 2025-2027, which includes 18 measures, the expert said. Among them are the involvement of unemployed citizens by March 1, 2026, setting targets for the regions by November 1, 2026, and regular analysis of the results. It also provides for continuous monitoring and dissemination of best practices, which allows you to adjust measures and enhance their effectiveness.
In recent years, the fight against shadow employment has become more systematic. In 2023, the methodology for assessing its scale and calculating targets for the regions was approved, Farida Mirzabalayeva, Associate Professor of the Basic Department of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry "Human Resource Management" at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, confirmed to Izvestia. This allowed not only to fix the problem, but also to plan specific measures to legalize employment.
"Significant attention has been paid to strengthening the role of interdepartmental commissions," she said. — It is planned to give them additional powers, including the ability to draw up protocols on administrative offenses and participate in the formation of a register of violators. Their work is also regularly monitored and the effectiveness of the measures taken is analyzed.
A separate set of measures is related to analytics and control. Illegal employment is being monitored, the number of citizens in the shadow sector is estimated, and the achievement of targets is analyzed. In addition, the practice of substituting employment relations with civil law contracts is being studied, the expert said.
Informal employment, she said, is unevenly distributed across the country. The highest rates are observed in the North Caucasus Federal District - 42.7% of the employed. In some regions, the level is even higher: in Ingushetia — about 64%, in Kabardino-Balkaria — 57.2%, in North Ossetia — 47.5%.
"The further reduction of shadow employment is related to the digitalization of control and prevention," she said. — Automation technologies and artificial intelligence are being used to identify violations, a register of employers has been maintained since 2025, the self-employment regime is developing and explanatory work with businesses and employees is being intensified.
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