Earnings of skilled workers at agricultural enterprises in the after-reform decade (1990-2000ss)
The agrarian reform of the 1990s, aimed at the establishment of new forms of ownership and economy management in villages by rearrangement of collective and state farms, establishment of farming, privatization and redistribution of lands, was a crushing burden for rural workers. The economical status of the social group of skilled workers, being of particular importance for agricultural industry, worsened significantly. The purpose of this article is identifying the earnings structure for the skilled workers of agricultural enterprises during the agrarian reform of the 1990s and analysis of earnings sources based on the application of the statistic data, periodical press materials and unpublished archival documents. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from 1990 to 2000. It coincides with the active phase of the agrarian reforms. The territorial boundaries include the number of the constituents of the Russian Federation, representing different economical regions, such as the Central Black Earth Region (Belgorod, Kursk, Lipetsk and Tambov regions), the Volga Region ( Samara and Saratov regions), the Ural Region (the Republic of Bashkortostan), which allows to reveal the similar processes occurring within social groups of skilled workers. During the study the main earning sources for the skilled agricultural workers have been identified and analyzed, such as wages, incomes from private farming, assistance on the part of agricultural enterprises, property income and social securities). As a result, an extremely low income level of skilled workers in the after-reform decade, not exceeding minimum living wage set by the Government, has been stated. It caused negative consequences, such as skilled workers’ and their families’ forced refusal of socio-cultural benefits, pessimism and anxiety, the need of finding opportunities to earn additionally outside the agricultural facility and rapid labour turnover of skilled farm workers.