New minimum wage from 2022: what payments the employer needs to change

Additional payment up to the minimum wage in 2022

This information is current as of 2022.
On 01/01/2021, the minimum wage (hereinafter referred to as the minimum wage) changed once again, reaching the level of 12,792 rubles. (Law “On Amendments...” dated December 29, 2020 No. 473-FZ). Previously, its size was 12,130 rubles.

Important! The Labor Code of the Russian Federation guarantees citizens wages in an amount not less than the minimum wage (paragraph 7 of Article 133 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, the regional minimum wage cannot be lower than the federal one.

We draw attention to the following points:

• In addition to the minimum wage determined at the federal level, some constituent entities of the Russian Federation set their own minimum wage in accordance with the rules of Art. 133.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
• It is the employee’s salary that must reach the established level of the federal minimum wage or the regional minimum wage - taking into account all its components: salary, allowances. For example, according to the accepted remuneration system in an organization, an employee is paid a bonus for traveling work. In this case, it is necessary to compare the amount of the salary and this bonus with the minimum wage (Article 129 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Ministry of Labor dated 09/04/2018 N 14-1 / OOG-7353).
• When comparing salaries with the minimum wage, additional payments for part-time work, overtime work, additional payments for working at night, on holidays and weekends (Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of April 11, 2019 No. 17-P), financial aid, bonuses for holidays are not taken into account.
• The salary level of employees of organizations located in the regions of the Far North and in areas with a similar status, without taking into account the regional coefficient and bonuses for length of service, should not be lower than the minimum wage (see Section 1 of the Review of Practice, approved by the Presidium of the RF Armed Forces on February 26, 2014) .

In connection with the changed minimum wage, you will be interested in reading the new review by ConsultantPlus “Minimum wage in 2022: what payments need to be revised.” If you do not yet have access to the ConsultantPlus system, you can sign up for a free trial access for 2 days.

How to calculate surcharges in commercial organizations

The basis for calculations in a commercial organization is the regional minimum wage or the federal one, if it has such a right. The amount of additional payment to the minimum wage in 2020 is the difference between the minimum wage and the employee’s salary.

For example, locksmith Ivanov’s salary for fully worked hours is 9,000 rubles. The minimum wage in 2022 is 12,130 rubles. The difference is 3130 rubles - this is the amount of the surcharge. After the missing part of the money is added, the accounting department will subtract the income tax, the amount of which is 1,576.90 rubles. In total, Ivanov will receive 10,553.1 rubles. This is less than the minimum wage, but personal income tax is necessarily withheld from wages. And inspectors take into account the amount before tax. For employees of St. Petersburg, the minimum wage is 19,000 rubles, and the personal income tax amount is 2,470 rubles, or 16,530 rubles in hand.

Calculation formula:

The minimum wage in the region at the current time is wages = the amount of additional payment.

If Ivanov had been sick or on vacation for the last two days of the month, then the payment would still have to be calculated through the minimum wage. Before calculating the additional payment up to the minimum wage, if the month is not fully worked, it is necessary to calculate the cost of a working day and multiply by the number of days worked in the month.

How to calculate surcharges in budgetary organizations

If an organization is financed from the federal budget, then the additional payment to the minimum wage in a budgetary institution is made at the federal minimum wage, regardless of the location of the company. Even if you are in Moscow or St. Petersburg, the minimum wage is calculated according to federal values. The calculation formula is the same as in the case of commercial organizations, but the final figure is lower due to the use of a federal indicator:

Calculation formula:

The minimum wage in Russia at the current time is wages = the amount of additional payment.

Minimum salary for part-time workers

The work of a part-time worker is remunerated in proportion to the time worked. There is an indication of this in Art. 285 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, wages are not lower than the minimum, calculated in proportion to the time worked. If the amount of full-time working time per month is not fully worked, then part-time workers are not entitled to additional payment up to the minimum wage.

A new way to calculate the minimum wage

Starting from 2022, the rules for calculating the minimum wage and subsistence level in Russia are changing (Law No. 473-FZ dated December 29, 2020 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”).

The size of the minimum wage will now be determined based on the median wage for the previous year, and not on the subsistence level (consumption basket).

Median wage is the average earnings of workers, relative to which half of Russians have higher wages, and the other half have lower wages.

Note! The median salary should not be confused with the arithmetic mean. The median salary is usually lower than the arithmetic mean. This is primarily due to the uneven distribution of wages across regions and sectors of the economy, as well as the large gap between high and low wages in the country as a whole.

The median salary is calculated by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) taking into account the collected information, based on the methodology developed by this body. According to Rosstat, in 2022 the median salary was 34,335 rubles.

From 2022, it is proposed to set the ratio of the minimum wage to the median salary at 42%. Further, this ratio will be reviewed at least once every 5 years.

In addition, the minimum wage will be calculated immediately for the year, in contrast to the previous procedure, when it was calculated for each quarter.

Important! The minimum wage established for the current year should not be less than:

• the cost of living of the working population as a whole in the Russian Federation for a given year;
• The minimum wage established in the previous year.

Minimum wages - types, size, regulatory framework

According to Art.
3 of the Law “On the Minimum...” of June 19, 2000 No. 82-FZ, the minimum wage is a conditional value that is used to regulate wages and assign benefits or other social payments from the compulsory social insurance fund. At the same time, the use of minimum wages for other purposes is prohibited by law. We wrote about calculating sick leave in the article

In view of the provisions of Art. 1 Federal Law No. 82, the minimum wage is established only by federal law. From 01/01/2018, its monthly amount was 9,489 rubles; from 05/01/2018 it was increased to 11,163 rubles. From 2019, the procedure for determining the minimum wage is subject to adjustment: from this day on, it is equal to the cost of living for the working-age population in Russia as a whole, calculated for the 2nd quarter of the previous year. From January 2022, the minimum wage is 12,130 rubles.

From 2022, the method of calculating the minimum wage has changed again. The minimum wage for the next year is set based on the median salary, and cannot be less than the subsistence level of the working population. From January 1, 2022, the minimum wage is 12,792 rubles.

Read about the minimum wage in Moscow and the region in the article

According to Art. 133 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the monthly wage of an employee who has fully worked the required working hours and, accordingly, has fulfilled his job duties in full, cannot be less than the minimum wage.

Types of minimum wages

Art. 133.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation gives the right to constituent entities of the Russian Federation to establish a minimum wage in an amount different from the federal one. In this case, the minimum wage must be established by a tripartite agreement concluded between representatives of workers and entrepreneurs with the participation of representatives of regional authorities. This right should not infringe on the interests of citizens employed in the region, therefore, the regional minimum wage, according to the same article, can only exceed the federal one and is determined taking into account the cost of living for the working population in a particular region.

Organizations that did not participate in the development and signing of the regional agreement have the right to join it within a month or refuse such accession by sending a reasoned written refusal to the relevant authority. In this case, their management must attach to the refusal a protocol of consultations between representatives of the organization and employees of the company (trade union), as well as proposals on the timing and measures that the company plans to take to increase wages to the level of the regional minimum wage.

If the organization does not refuse to comply with the regional agreement within 1 month, it is considered to have accepted its terms by default. Accordingly, from the moment of the official publication of this agreement, the organization will need to pay its employees wages based on the regional minimum wage, and not the federal one.

The procedure for establishing the minimum wage in the regions of the Russian Federation

The minimum wage differs in different regions of the Russian Federation and is determined depending on socio-economic conditions.

Risks! If a regional minimum wage is established in a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, it does not apply to employees of organizations receiving funding from the federal budget.

The regional minimum wage is established by a tripartite commission by concluding a regional agreement, which will be officially published along with an invitation to employers of the subject to join it.

Note! The employer is considered to have automatically acceded to the agreement if it does not send a reasoned refusal to the authorized body within 30 calendar days.

The table below shows the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in which the minimum wage differs from the federal one:

What liability awaits the employer in case of violation of the law?

The minimum wage is an important value that is used to calculate numerous macroeconomic indicators. It is enshrined not only in the Constitution of Russia, but also in Federal laws. If the employer does not take this value into account, then he falls under administrative liability. It is described in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

If this is a legal entity, then it will receive a fine of 30,000 rubles. But that's not all. In accordance with the laws, the manager himself can be held accountable. If the offense is repeated, the fine will be increased.

There may even be criminal liability. It occurs in two cases:

• the employee’s earnings are below the minimum wage for 2 or more months;
• the manager deliberately allows arrears.

As you can see, the legislation is quite strict regarding those who do not pay wages in full. So, it is recommended to hire an experienced accountant to avoid any problems in the future.

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Additional payment up to the minimum wage for an incomplete month worked

Important! The salary may be lower than the minimum wage if:

• a part-time/part-time work week is established for an employee (you can learn more about the various modes of organizing working time in our article “Working time under the Labor Code - types and features”);
• the employee works part-time.

In these cases, since the employee is underemployed, the remuneration he receives at the end of the month may be lower than the established minimum wage. In this case, the minimum amount to be paid is calculated in the appropriate proportion of the minimum wage.

Example: A teacher works at 0.25 salary. The minimum wage from 01/01/2021 is 12,792 rubles. This means that this teacher cannot receive less than 3,198 rubles from 01/01/2021. (i.e. 12,792 × 0.25).

Risks! If the employees’ salary is below the minimum wage, the employer may be held administratively liable on the basis of Part 6-7 of Art. 5.27 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences.

How to correctly pay extra up to the minimum wage in various situations is described in the ready-made solution ConsultantPlus “How to calculate and process an additional payment to your salary up to the minimum wage.” If you do not yet have access to the ConsultantPlus system, you can sign up for a free trial access for 2 days.

Supplement to minimum wage

If for a month an employee receives, taking into account allowances, an amount greater than or equal to the minimum wage, there will be no questions from the labor inspectorate to the employer. If the employee’s salary, including allowances, is less than the minimum value, an additional payment must be made.

The allowance is made on the basis of the order. This is the basic rule on how to properly pay employees up to the minimum wage in 2022. The order may be made uniform for all employees whose income is lower. Based on this, the accountant will calculate the amount.

Read more: Drawing up a sample order to increase wages for employees

Order for additional payment up to the minimum wage (sample)

There is no unified/standard form of order for additional payment to an employee whose salary does not reach the minimum wage level.

We recommend! The said administrative document can be drawn up in free form, taking into account the established document flow features of the organization and the requirements of local documentation.

At the same time, the issuance of an order to increase the salary must be preceded by the following personnel procedures:

• Conclusion of an additional agreement to the employment contract. In this document, it is necessary to agree on a new salary amount with the employee, since the amount of remuneration for labor is an important condition of the employment contract (Article 72 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
• Making changes to the staffing table (if necessary) or issuing a new staffing table with current data.

In general, the contents of an order for additional payment to the minimum wage should include the following information:

• name of the document and its details;
• grounds for additional payment - discrepancy between the salary level and the established minimum wage, including a reference to the relevant regulatory legal act at the federal or regional level regulating the current minimum wage amount;
• information about the employee in respect of whom this order is issued: last name, first name, patronymic, position, name of the structural unit in which he is employed;
• amount of surcharge;
• date of payment;
• indication of persons responsible for executing the order;
• signature of the employer’s authorized person with a transcript;
• signatures with a transcript of the persons responsible for executing the order, and the inscription “I have read the order”, the date of familiarization.

A sample of the mentioned document can be found at the link below: Order for additional payment up to the minimum wage - sample.

How to arrange a salary increase to the new minimum wage: two ways

If the salary for full working hours after January 1, 2020 is less than the new minimum wage (12,130 rubles), or the regional or industry minimum wage, then the employer needs to pay extra. Set the additional payment from the date when the new minimum wage came into effect. There are two ways to prepare documents:

1. increase salary;
2. establish a surcharge.

Method number 1: increase your salary

It is worth saying that this method is used by many employers every time after a change in the minimum wage. However, it has obvious disadvantages. Every time the minimum wage changes, it is necessary to issue not only an order to increase wages, but also change employment contracts, staffing schedules and other documents that mention the size of salaries.

To do this, it will be necessary to issue an order to increase wages to the minimum wage starting in 2022. A template for such an order might look like this:

Method No. 2: set a surcharge in a local act

It is much more convenient for employers to permanently fix a special additional payment in an internal local act, for example, in a separate order or regulation on wages. After all, it is not the salary that is compared with the minimum wage, but the total salary. That is, salary plus bonuses and other payments.

With this option, there will no longer be a need to change employment contracts and other local acts every time the minimum wage changes. It is enough to establish a compensatory additional payment up to the minimum wage, for example, in the regulations on remuneration. Then you won’t have to issue orders for each case when an additional payment is prescribed.

Here is an example of wording that can be included, for example, in the Remuneration Regulations:

6. Indexation of wages to the minimum wage

6.1. The salary of employees of Stella LLC is indexed in connection with the increase in the officially established minimum wage (minimum wage).

6.2. With each change in the minimum wage, Stella LLC increases the salaries of employees to the minimum wage established by law.

6.3. Salary, taking into account indexation, is paid to employees of Stella LLC starting from the date when the new minimum wage came into force.

Calculation of the amount of additional payment up to the minimum wage

As examples, let's look at the most common situations, let's take the minimum wage, effective from 01/01/2021:

• The employee works full time, there are no regional coefficients or bonuses, the salary is 5,000 rubles, the monthly bonus is 2,000 rubles, a budgetary organization. So, the employee receives 7,000 rubles in hand, which is 5,792 rubles. less than the established minimum wage. Accordingly, he needs to pay an additional 5,792 rubles.
• The employee works for a Moscow company that is a party to the regional agreement on the minimum wage in Moscow. Salary – 15,000 rubles, monthly bonus – 2,000 rubles. Since at the moment the regional minimum wage in Moscow is 20,589 rubles. (see “Moscow tripartite agreement for 2022 - 2022 between the Moscow Government, Moscow trade union associations and Moscow employers’ associations”), then the employee must pay an additional 3,589 rubles.
• The employee works in an area equated to the regions of the Far North. Salary - 5,000 rubles, regional coefficient - 1.2, bonus for length of service - 10%, no regional minimum wage. As we wrote above, for this category of workers, the salary part of the salary is brought up to the minimum wage level, without taking into account the coefficient and bonus for length of service. In this case, since there are no other additional payments, we evaluate only the salary. Accordingly, the employee must pay an additional RUB 7,792. And then the coefficient and bonus will be calculated on the salary amount increased to the minimum wage - 12,792 rubles.

Note! The regional coefficient and percentage increase in wages depend on the place where the employee actually works, and not on the location of the employer (see letter of Rostrud dated January 15, 2016 No. ТЗ/23333-6-1).

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So, to an employee whose salary does not reach the established minimum wage level (federal or, in certain cases, regional), the employer is obliged to pay an additional amount so that the salary, taking it into account, is not lower than the minimum wage.
If an employee works part-time or has a part-time job, then his salary may be lower than the minimum wage, but its minimum threshold is determined as part of the minimum wage, proportional to the time worked. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

How is additional payment made to the minimum wage level?

In order to find out whether an additional payment needs to be made, you must first determine the employee’s average daily earnings. Everything is identical with the calculation of vacation pay. After this, the resulting figure is compared with the average daily minimum wage. If the first indicator is less, then an additional payment is required.

In order to correctly calculate the average daily earnings, you should focus on Resolution No. 922. In accordance with it, all wages received during the year are taken. It is divided by 12 (the number of months). The resulting value must be divided by 29.3 (the average number of days per year). This formula is recommended by labor legislation. It takes into account that during the year the employee had 14 holiday days off. That is why the figure is taken at 29.3. The same figure is taken to calculate the average daily salary for a particular month.

If the calculations show a result that is below the minimum wage, then an additional payment must be made. In order to justify additional costs, you can issue an accounting certificate.