Raising the salaries of PFR employees. Systems approach

The salary of pension fund employees in 2019 will increase by 15% - this became obvious back in 2018, when the amount of the state budget was made public. It should be borne in mind that the pledged amount in such a value implies a significant excess of the average statistical wages in Russia by 2 times.

Almost every Russian is aware of the fact of the budget deficit, which is reported annually by press services from bureaucratic offices.

To reduce the deficit, budgetary funds are being optimized, which concerns every second citizen. Here's what optimization is all about:

• in the fact that some part of Russian pensioners do not index their pensions;
• in the “freezing” of salaries and the temporary impossibility of raising them;
• in the reduction of staff units, which means layoffs.

Budgetary funds in the process of the notorious optimization are distributed unevenly: public funding often passes by those who need it most. There is no need to talk about justice in resolving such issues: there will always be dissatisfied decision.

Table: wage in the pension fund Russian Federation across regions in 2018-2019.

The salary of employees of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, according to them, does not exceed 27 thousand rubles a month on average.

This information differs from that announced by representatives of financial departments involved in planning the state budget. The following issues need to be addressed:

• what is the salary of the PFR employees;
• how much does it actually cost the state to maintain Pension Fund specialists (in numbers);
• how costs rise.

Growth of expenses for PFR employees

The stated plans of the Pension Fund include an increase in the cost of maintaining their specialists. In numbers, it looks like this: from 78.7 billion rubles in 2018 to 83 billion in 2019. The increase in spending on the PF apparatus looks strange, especially against the background that the state is acutely short of finances for indexing pensions.

1. If we assume that 12 thousand rubles is an average pension, then the salary increase for employees of the pension department will cost 358 (!) thousand pensions.
2. The calculated amount could allow supporting more than 30,000 pensioners. And this number does not take into account the fact that many receive a pension much less than the average.
3. Full indexation of pensions by increasing the financing of PF workers is impossible, but justice towards those who are more in need would be more likely.

Trends in wage increases for PF employees look like this:

1. The average salary increase should be close to 5.5%.
2. The real increase in income is much higher, since the PF apparatus is threatened with numerous cuts: about 10% of employees will be laid off.
3. The cost of maintaining an ordinary employee of the Pension Fund should be about 57 thousand rubles (before the staff reduction). In 2016, the expense was slightly lower - 54 thousand rubles a month. Where did the difference go if ordinary specialists claim that their salary is 27 thousand rubles? A question without an answer.
4. In the event of a one-time staff reduction, the content of 1 PF specialist will reach almost 63 thousand rubles.

The average salary in the Pension Fund and a comparison of the number of staff of the Pension Fund of Russia with other countries

What else is included in the content of employees of the Pension Fund

Such heavy expenses imply not only the salary (in total, it is about 40 billion rubles) that employees receive, but also the following points:

1. Formation of insurance premiums that the Pension Fund pays for its subordinates to insurance funds. It follows from this that the state not only provides income to employees, but also their future pensions, which Pension Fund he himself will then pay his employees retirement age. The amount of these insurance premiums is 30% of the salary, which is about 8 thousand rubles (based on an average salary of 27 thousand rubles). Thus, the formation of pensions for Pension Fund employees additionally takes 11.5 billion rubles from the state.
2. The remaining 30 billion, requested from the state budget by the department, disappear in an unknown direction, since specific necessary expenses have not been presented. Perhaps the point is high bonuses or expensive business trips, which the heads of the department do not disdain. An analysis by Life.ru journalists of the travel records of PF employees showed that even middle-level managers consider it normal to buy tickets worth 100-200 thousand rubles at the expense of the fund.
3. Some more expenses of the Pension Fund in numbers:

• information and explanatory activities - 185 million rubles;
• construction purchases, acquisition and rental of real estate - more than 14 billion rubles, in many cases (50%) the amounts were greatly exaggerated.

Number of Pension Fund employees per 1 million pensioners in Russia, USA and Sweden

The heads of the Pension Fund and other state funds will be able to earn ten times more than their subordinates, the Ministry of Labor suggests. The authors attribute such a large income gap to the “special role” of these managers.

Heads of state off-budget funds- Pension Fund, as well as social and compulsory health insurance funds (FSS and FFOMS) - will be able to receive a salary ten times higher than average earnings their subordinates, follows from the draft government decree published on August 30 on the portal of draft regulations. The salaries of deputy heads and chief accountants of these funds can be eight times higher than the average earnings of employees, it can be seen from the project.

This is the highest ratio between the salaries of managers and other employees of state institutions proposed today. The proposal of the Ministry of Labor is due to the “special role government controlled pension finance, provision state guarantees in the system of social insurance and the system of compulsory medical insurance," the explanatory note to the draft says. The adoption of the resolution will not mean an increase in the salaries of the heads of state funds, the authors of the project make a reservation, the document only “fixes the maximum allowable level” of their salaries.

Until now, there has been no established maximum difference between the salaries of managers and employees of state funds, RBC was told in the press service of the Ministry of Labor. The ministries, the founders of these organizations, became obliged to determine it both for state funds and for state institutions and federal state unitary enterprises after the adoption in July of this year of amendments to Labor Code. As a rule, ministries propose to introduce an eight-fold marginal difference between the salaries of chief executives and employees of state institutions and enterprises entrusted to them, as can be seen from the projects that were published earlier on the portal of draft regulations. Such a difference, in particular, was proposed to be introduced by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 2008, the government of Russia has already established an eight-fold marginal ratio between the salaries of managers and employees of state institutions (and only for them) in 2008.

The Pension Fund agrees with the proposal of the Ministry of Labor to establish a tenfold difference between the salaries of its management and employees, a representative of the fund told RBC. In this case, the government decree will just fix the salary ratio that exists in the PFR today - about ten times, follows from the explanations of the interlocutor of RBC. The average salary under the PFR system in 2016 is about 32 thousand rubles. per month, said the representative of the fund. monthly salary head of the FIU, according to the presidential decree issued in 2014 - 301.6 thousand rubles, and another 326 thousand rubles. a year he receives in the form of quarterly incentives, calculated RBC. The total income of the head of the FIU in 2015 amounted to about 3.8 million rubles, follows from the report presented on the website of the organization.

The salaries of the heads of the FSS and FFOMS are determined by the same presidential decree, their sizes are similar to the salary of the chairman of the board of the PFR.

The budget deficit, and the optimization resulting from it, affected every second citizen of the Russian Federation - someone was deprived of indexation of pensions, someone did not receive a salary increase, and someone even got laid off and was fired. But the situation with the distribution of budgetary funds is far from always homogeneous - that's why it is an optimization, in order to take from some and give to others, logically "more in need" of state funding. Nevertheless, the principle of justice in the preparation of the state budget and the distribution of funds is respected only in exceptional cases, when otherwise would seem outright impudence. And even then not always.

So, one of the manifestations of such injustice was the recent news about the increase in salaries for employees of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. An analysis of the budgeted amount showed that the average size salaries of PFR employees in 2017 should grow by an average of almost 15%, despite the fact that the size of the average salary, judging by the amount of pledged funds, significantly exceeds the average salary in the country by almost 2 times. Although, in fact, the employees of the Fund do not receive such funds - surveys of employees claim that the level of remuneration does not exceed 27 thousand rubles on average. Careerist.ru figured out how much the maintenance of the Pension Fund employees costs the state.

Instead of 30 thousand pensioners

Despite the fact that in Russia there is an acute shortage of funds for indexing pensions - instead for pensioners in January, the PFR plans to significantly increase the content for its employees, at least this follows from the figures that are included in the draft budget for next year being discussed today. The drafters included in it an increase in costs in 2017 for the maintenance of the Fund's specialists to 83 billion rubles, although even this year the PFR apparatus cost the state much cheaper - 78.7 billion rubles. Thus, the maintenance of employees requires an increase of 4.3 billion rubles. Life.ru calculated that if the average pension in the Russian Federation is at the level of 12 thousand rubles, then an increase in salaries for employees of the department will cost the state 358 thousand pensions - about 30 thousand pensioners can be supported for this money. And given the fact that not everyone gets the average size, even more.

In Russia, there is an acute shortage of funds for indexing pensions, but the PFR plans to significantly raise the content for its employees

Of course, this money would not be able to help indexation of pensions in full, but in the conditions of total savings it would definitely not be superfluous.

Taking into account the staff of the Pension Fund, they should increase the salaries of specialists by an average of 5.4%. But in reality (at least in a rough calculation) it turns out that the increase will be more significant. So, next year the PFR apparatus will be subject to massive cuts - since the Federal Tax Service will control the payment of insurance payments by employers, the state seems to be bloated. Life.ru reports that the layoffs will affect about 12,000 employees of the Fund. Despite the fact that today the number of specialists has almost 122 thousand people, the reductions will affect about 10% of the staff.

However, last year Izvestia cited information from the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, according to which at least 20 thousand employees exercised administrative control over the payment of contributions. So layoffs will not touch everyone who is engaged in this work. At the same time, the PFR itself claims that when this function was transferred to them, the staff increased by only more than 10 thousand people, so the Fund is not going to fire extra employees. And the dismissals themselves, obviously, will not be one-time - they are clearly “stretched out” in the hope that the situation will change.

But even while maintaining a full staff, maintenance costs ordinary worker next year will amount to about 56.8 thousand rubles! This is despite the fact that in 2016 they already spent almost 54 thousand rubles a month. Where these funds went, if we take into account the average salary of specialists at 27 thousand rubles, remains a mystery. One can only assume colossal disparities between the salaries of ordinary employees and management - we are already used to this, but even in this case, the difference seems obscenely huge. It will seem even more so if the reductions take place at the same time and at the beginning of the year - in this case, the average monthly salary of one PFR employee will increase by more than 15%, to 62.7 thousand rubles!

Not only salaries

However, there is still a partial explanation for such a volume of expenses - not only their wages are formed from the funds allocated for the maintenance of employees, but also insurance premiums, which the PFR, as an employer, is obliged to pay to insurance funds. Thus, the state allocates funds not only to ensure income, but also to ensure future pensions, which this very Pension Fund will pay to its employees who have received the status of a pensioner. But this only partially justifies such figures - the amount of deductions is 30%, given the average salary of 27 thousand rubles, the average amount of deductions is about 8 thousand rubles. Thus, in addition to spending on salaries, which, based on the average monthly figure, amount to no more than 39 billion rubles, the fund spends an additional 11.5 billion rubles on the formation of pensions for its employees.

But this, again, justifies only 50 billion rubles of spending.

Where about another 30 billion rubles goes is an open question. Obviously the leaders top management receive high bonuses, go on expensive business trips and spend the fund's funds on other inefficient needs. Back in October, Life.ru journalists analyzed the travel records of PFR employees, and it turned out that even middle-level managers do not hesitate to purchase air tickets at the expense of the fund, worth 100-200 thousand rubles. This is despite the fact that the most expensive of them are flights within Russia.

The volume of frank "squandering" of Russian pensioners' funds is really impressive. For example, according to REGNUM news agency, in 2017 the Fund plans to spend a fabulous 185 million rubles on the PFR information and explanatory company alone. Separate attention deserves the results of the audit of PFR estimates for capital construction published by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. So, over the past 2 years, the Fund has spent more than 14 billion rubles on the construction, purchase and lease of real estate. The result of the audit showed that in 50% of cases the amounts spent were overestimated, and in 5 regions and in general, more funds were spent on the purchase than was pledged for construction. So the inefficient spending of funds by the Pension Fund is nothing new.

How costs are rising

Interestingly, the amount of funds allocated for the maintenance of PFR employees is growing every year.

For example, in the crisis year of 2014, an average of 47.3 thousand rubles was spent per specialist. Despite the crisis, in 2015 the content increased by almost 10% - up to 52 thousand rubles, in 2016 by 3.7% - to almost 54 thousand rubles. In 2017, if we take into account the massive reduction, the increase in maintenance costs to 63 thousand rubles will be the largest in the entire history of the PFR. This looks rather strange against the background of when Russia continues to operate, which, apparently, will be extended for another 3 years.

But, obviously, the PFR employees were “lucky” in this matter - since the Fund has an off-budget status, its employees are not formally officials, so their salaries are not limited by the moratorium. Another question is that the same fact obliges the Fund to be self-sufficient and support its employees at its own expense. However, the 3.5 trillion rubles it generates are not even enough to pay pensions, so 40% of all expenses of the department, and this is 3.2 trillion rubles, are covered by the state. Perhaps, if the Fund spent the money allocated to it more efficiently, state transfers would be much smaller, and pensioners would not have to be deprived of the indexation they are required by law.

The amount of funds allocated for the maintenance of PFR employees is growing every year.

But everything would be fine if the allocated extra 4.3 billion rubles really went to increase the salaries of PFR employees - this decision is supported by many. For example, Senator Valery Ryazansky in an interview with REGNUM said that the increase in their salaries is justified by the high workload, because despite the deprivation of their obligation to control social contributions, they continue to administer a lot of other payments besides pensions. With this, according to the FBA "Economy Today", the Union of Pensioners of Russia agrees, because the burden on employees is constantly growing.

But in fact, one should not expect any serious increase - the salaries of PFR employees, as they say in the Fund itself, are determined and increased according to established standards, according to the level of salaries of specialists from other federal structures. The moratorium on raising the salaries of civil servants just applies to them, and therefore the increase in salaries, despite the allocation additional funds, not expected . Apparently, the money will again be spent on the needs of the top.

The head of the Accounts Chamber, Tatyana Golikova, proposed merging three social non-budgetary funds - the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), social insurance (FSS) and compulsory medical insurance (FOMS). The merger of the funds has not yet been discussed in the government, but theoretically it could save more than a quarter of the current costs of maintaining them.

Tatyana Golikova: The United Compulsory Social Insurance Fund should not be in state, but in public ownership. Photo: Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS

This idea was expressed by the head of the Accounts Chamber as part of a report on reforming public administration spending. She presented it at the Gaidar Forum organized by the RANEPA, the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia and the Gaidar Institute.

According to Golikova, 162,800 people work in the three funds, which is only slightly less than half of the number of employees in 53 federal authorities subordinate to the government. The cost of maintaining the funds is 143.8 billion rubles a year. "They are fully covered by those insurance premiums that are collected in the budgets of these state non-budgetary funds as taxes on the wage fund," Golikova stressed.

According to the head of the Accounts Chamber, it is necessary to eliminate the need to create parallel information systems by all three funds: the resources they spend on informatization are quite large. "According to the experience of most similar institutions, the combined fund of compulsory social insurance should be a unique management structure, which is not in state, but in public ownership. Why public property? Because part of the budget of this fund, namely insurance premiums, is administered by the Federal Tax Service and it remains such an administrator. It's about about the distribution of those resources that come as a revenue part," Golikova specified.

According to the Vice-Rector of the Academy of Labor and social relations Alexander Safonov, the possible merger of social funds will not be quick. "Taking into account the revision, preparation of the draft law, a single information platform - this is a project of not one or two, but about five years," he said. In his opinion, the cost of maintaining social funds after their possible merger could be reduced by about 20-40 billion rubles.

As Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets later told reporters, the proposal to unite the three social fund was not discussed by the government (the Accounts Chamber is not part of the Cabinet of Ministers and does not have the right to initiate legislation). "Proposals must be balanced, we must understand what result we expect," she stressed. The head of the Ministry of Labor Maxim Topilin also noted that he had not yet seen official proposals for the merger of social funds.

In her speech, Tatyana Golikova also touched upon other issues of the effectiveness of spending on the public administration system. So, she once again questioned the expediency of the existence federal agencies as separate departments. At the suggestion of the Accounts Chamber, agencies with a network of territorial bodies subordinate to them can be included in ministries as structural units or even become independent ministries or committees. Agencies that do not have territorial bodies can be transformed into state institutions subordinate to ministries.

In addition, the Accounts Chamber believes that the system of remuneration of officials is actually unbalanced. According to Golikova, in recent years there has been a significant disproportion in the remuneration of civil servants. According to her, the salaries of officials of the same category can differ by two to three times. Also in 2016, the number of civil civil servants was reduced to the level of 2012, but this process affected only the lower level of management and led to an imbalance in the hierarchy of positions, the head of the Accounts Chamber noted.

“It seems to us that it is necessary to change the structure of the salary by increasing the share of guaranteed payments in its composition and establishing a clear relationship between incentive payments and indicators of the efficiency and effectiveness of civil servants,” Golikova said. In her opinion, this can increase the attractiveness of the civil civil service and encourage financially the most efficient workers. But such a mechanism will work only if the institution of attestation of civil servants is improved, the head of the Accounts Chamber specified.