WAGE DIFFERENTIATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS AT THE END OF THE NEP: BETWEEN “EQUALIZATION” AND LABOR INCENTIVES

Abstract

The task of regulating the wages of industrial workers during the NEP years was one of the priorities of Soviet social policy. Wages at state-owned enterprises during the NEP years was regulated by the state, which was supposed, on the one hand, to implement the new principles of social policy (a course towards equalizing wages), and on the other hand, to ensure production efficiency. The main tools for regulating wages were the tariff scale and the conditions of collective agreements. The article characterizes the policy pursued by the state in the area of wages of industrial workers during the NEP years and the practice of its implementation, as well as the reaction of workers to the ongoing processes of regulating the differentiation of their wages among both skilled and unskilled workers. It is shown that consistent alignment (leveling) of workers’ salaries could not be achieved. The workers’ attitude to the policy pursued in this area is analyzed on the basis of declassified materials from a multi-volume publication of documents — information reviews and summaries of the OGPU. The author identifies various forms of protest and dissatisfaction of workers on the basis of wage regulation, which manifested themselves in different groups of workers, in different regions of the country, at enterprises of various industries and had different reasons. The most characteristic ones were the conflict situations generated by the course of equalizing wages, which meant a decrease in labor motivation for skilled workers and caused their dissatisfaction.