The salary gap between managers and ordinary employees in Russia is narrowing: employers are increasingly willing to pay more to specialists who are harder to find and replace. Ivan Ermokhin, researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s International Best Practices Analysis Department, told RBC about this situation.
The expert noted that the shortage of labor is still a factor for growth in wages for mass‑market personnel. This trend is particularly evident in blue-collar roles and the logistics sector. Employers are offering around Rb117,000, while job seekers expect Rb90,000; in transport and logistics, the figures are Rb131,000 versus Rb80,000.
At the same time, demand is declining in a number of office professions: in January–August 2026, the number of vacancies in IT decreased by 34% year‑on‑year, in HR -- by 36%, in finance and accounting -- by 31% and in marketing -- by 28%.
“It is important not to confuse the dynamics of salaries for existing employees with the offers made to new hires. Based on job postings, we can see that the gap between managers and ordinary employees is narrowing: a year and a half ago managers were offered, on average, 1.9 times the average salary; now, it’s 1.6 times; and for blue‑collar professions, the gap has shrunk from 1.5 to 1.2 times. Salaries are growing faster in areas where it is difficult to replace an employee. Therefore, today’s dynamics are primarily a story about personnel shortages. A different logic applies to top executives: their income largely depends on business owners’ decisions,” said Ivan Ermokhin.
At the same time, the dynamics of wages for individual categories of workers do not allow for a direct assessment of overall income inequality. According to official statistics, the Gini coefficient in 2025 reached approximately 0.42, that is, the highest value over the past decade.