Official Salary

in the USSR, monthly wages. Payments in the form of an official salary are established for managers, engineering and technical personnel, clerical and professional employees, junior service personnel, security personnel, and certain categories of production workers. Salaries for enterprises in different sectors of industry and the national economy are determined by tables of official salaries ratified by the Council of Ministers of the USSR or by the State Committee on Labor acting on behalf of the Council of Ministers.

Enterprises are subdivided into several classes with respect to the salaries of managers and engineering and technical personnel. These classes depend on such factors as the number of workers, the volume of production, and the complexity of the products manufactured. The shops and production sections of enterprises are also subdivided into classes according to salary payments to managers and engineering and technical personnel.

Enterprises are assigned to a particular class by the appropriate ministries and departments on the basis of established indexes. Two tables of official salaries are stipulated for clerical workers at enterprises. One covers enterprises in heavy industry, transportation, and construction; the other is for light industry, the textile industry, the food-processing industry, and housing and municipal services.

The tables of official salaries generally provide a minimum and maximum salary for each position. This enables the administration, when setting salaries, to take into account a worker’s qualifications and the volume of work entailed by the job. Personal merit salaries may be designated for the most highly qualified specialists. In a number of sectors of the national economy, specialists who have higher academic degrees may receive salaries at the level of associates at scientific research institutes.