Payment system of agricultural workers of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 1965 – 1985

Abstract

The article considers the organization of the system of remuneration of agricultural workers in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the mid-1960s and mid-1980s. The main role in the income of the Soviet people was played by wages. It was the main lever of material incentives for the population to work. Its changes directly affected the well-being of the region's residents, as wages were the main source of livelihood for the Donbass population. The main component of the salary was the tariff rate. The authorities systematically reviewed the system of rates and salaries, believing that this would help achieve the main goal to ensure the optimal share of the tariff part in wages. The search for the most rational ways to create an effective system of material remuneration of workers in the 1960-80s continued quite actively. In general, wages in the country were regulated mainly by the state, market mechanisms were not involved in this process. Much attention is paid to the legislative justification of the formation and changes in the system of remuneration of their labor. In particular, the relevant resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, decisions of the Plenums of the Central Committee, local authorities, etc. are traced. On the basis of the above documents, the level of salaries of agricultural workers, the procedure for calculating various types of surcharges and bonuses, their differences in the years and main positions under study are analyzed. For almost the entire period under study, there has been a relentless search for optimization of wages in rural areas, but this search has had almost no effect on a significant improvement in the living standards of peasants. Different forms of wage distribution are also considered, salaries of management and agricultural specialists are analyzed and compared. The aspect of the existence of homesteads as a means of additional income is studied. The author gives a generalized description of the changes in the system of remuneration of rural workers during 1965 1985, following it from archival materials. The main attention is paid to the shortcomings in the system of wages in agriculture, reveals the unfair distribution of monetary expenditures on the wage fund.