Soviet working class: Difference between revisions

[[File:RIAN archive 77629 Worker's family.jpg|thumb|An "average" Soviet working-class family according to [[RIA Novosti]]; this family lived in [[Kiev]]]]

Since [[unemployment]] was rendered unviable through various acts of legislation, the Soviet worker, in contrast to a [[Capitalism|Capitalist]] worker, was more secure economically.{{sfn|Arnot|1988|pp=34–35}} In return for working, a Soviet worker would get an individual return in the form of a money wage; however, during the period under the [[New Economic Policy]] (1920s), [[hyperinflation]] rendered money effectively useless, and wages sometimes occurred through bartering {{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}. Money wage in Soviet parlance was not the same as in Capitalist countries.{{sfn|Arnot|1988|p=36}} The money wage was set at the top of the administrative system, and it was the same administrative system which also set bonuses. Wages were 80 percent of the average Soviet worker's income, with the remaining 20 percent coming in the form of bonuses. The Soviet wage system tried systematically to make wages more equal; for instance, the relationship between wages was termed "ITRs", a measure of comparing wages across occupations. For [[engineers]] and other technical workers ITR was 1.68 in 1955, but had decreased to 1.21 in 1977.{{sfn|Arnot|1988|p=35}} [[Social wage]]s were also an important part of the general standard of living for an average household; it stood at 23.4 percent of income for the average Soviet worker and their family, and at 19.1 percent for the family income of collective farmers. In the period between 1971–811971 and 1981, the social wage grew faster than the money wage; the money wage grew by 45 percent for workers and employees and 72 for workers at collective farms. In contrast, [[per capita]] income from social wages increased by 81 percent. Social wage took many forms; it could be improved health, education, transport or food subsidies, which was the responsibility of the state, or the improvement (or introduction) of sanitation and working facilities.{{sfn|Arnot|1988|p=36}}