Wages Payment and Non-Payment
| % Employees | |||
| Region | Paid in full | Delayed, not paid in full | % Mean paid in full |
| North-west | 63 | 37 | 128 |
| Central | 61 | 39 | 124 |
| North Caucasus | 54 | 46 | 110 |
| Volga | 53 | 47 | 107 |
| Volgo-Vyatka | 50 | 50 | 101 |
| Central Black Earth | 49 | 51 | 100 |
| RUSSIAN MEAN | 49 | 51 | 100 |
| Far East | 43 | 57 | 88 |
| West Siberia | 42 | 58 | 86 |
| Urals | 42 | 58 | 86 |
| East Siberia | 40 | 60 | 81 |
| Northern | 29 | 71 | 59 |
| Source: VCIOM, Russian Nationwide Surveys, 1996. | |||
Working Without Pay
The mismanagement of the economy has broken the link between work and pay, for the employed rather than the unemployed are the largest group in the labour force going without pay. More than half of all working Russians were not paid the full wages they had earned in the past month. In the uncertain state of the Russian economy, workers are not so much suffering a delay in pay as making a "forced loan" to their mployers, and risking that their loss of wages will be permanent rather than temporary. The level of unpaid wages is highest in the Northern region, and in East Siberia. It is lowest where Moscow and St Petersburg are located, in the North-west and Central regions.