The stereotype that poverty is the lot of lazy people and losers is becoming a thing of the past. After all, the economic reality of today paints a completely different portrait of the modern needy. The new poor in Russia are working people whose salaries do not allow them to provide them and their families with a living wage. In fact, the new poor have enough money to cover only a limited range of needs. Often the choice is between food and clothing, medicine and utility bills.
The new poor in Russia
In the language of dry statistical figures in Russia today, about five million people belong to this category. These are mainly low-paid public sector workers, nurses, civilian workers, as well as manual workers.
Almost every single-parent family where the mother does not have a permanent source of income automatically falls into the category of the new poor. And at the same time, a woman can have a higher education and successful work experience.
The salaries of the new poor, as a rule, balance at the level of the minimum wage, which is determined separately in each subject of the federation. The worker spends his earnings not only on himself - he also needs to provide for children, parents in his care, and often spouses. In this situation, the salary of this category of workers falls below the level of physical survival.
Who is guilty?
The phenomenon of the new poor is usually attributed to ineffective government policy. However, not all experts are ready to agree with this. For the first time, the new Russian poor appeared in the early 90s, when a working-age population with a good education and a competitive set of competencies suddenly lost their jobs due to a sharp transition to a new economic regime.
Today, the new Russian poor is a specialist who chose a profession already in the new economic conditions, having an idea of the labor market and those trends that were established 10 and 15 years ago. This is an overabundance of economists, lawyers and managers in the labor market, high competition in the public sector in high-paid positions, as well as a low number of vacancies in single-industry towns.
There is another social trend. Working poor people tend to have a legacy - that is, they grew up in dire need when only one parent was working. Such a social model is often adopted by a child in adulthood, so the presence of an unemployed family member of working age is perceived as normal.
What to do?
Getting out of the circle of poverty for workers is only possible by eliminating the reasons for falling into this category.
So, if a person of working age lives in the family, he needs to find a source of income. If giving up work is a way of life for these kind of people, psychological help may be needed. Sometimes you can achieve more through a detailed conversation than threats, quarrels and constant reproaches.
Low earnings of employees are often associated with a limited set of competencies. Simply put, the new poor are not always good workers who are simply unlucky. As before, the reason for low income is the inability to meet the needs of the employer in terms of the quality of performance of job duties.
In this case, the solution to the problem is self-education, increased professionalism and a more responsible approach to work. Free refresher courses, exchange of experience with colleagues and study of professional literature can help in this. Such investment in the profession is a long and difficult path, which, if used skillfully, still provides results.
If the level of earnings does not depend in any way on the professional skills of the worker, then in this case, the option of moving to another city with a lower level of unemployment should be considered. At first glance, this option seems too drastic, but it should not be discounted.
