Differentiation of wages for workers in the metallurgical industry during the NEP years (based on archival materials of the Sickle and Hammer plant)

One of the most important problems of any economic system is the problem of fair and rational remuneration of labor. A special place in the historiography devoted to the study of labor relations in Soviet Russia is occupied by studies of wages during the NEP period and its differentiation. The article presents the results of a study conducted on the basis of materials from the Sickle and Hammer plant and characterizing the differentiation of wages in the metallurgical industry of the 1920s. The main focus of the work is on the analysis of the remuneration of such categories of workers as workers and employees. Transformations of piecework, time-based and overtime pay, as well as changes in real and nominal wages were considered. The basis of the source base is archival materials, many of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.  Analytical, comparative-historical and dialectical methods were used in writing the article. The method of microanalysis has been widely used, which made it possible to draw conclusions on the trends of wage differentiation during the NEP period using the example of a specific enterprise. The results of the study demonstrate a tendency to decrease the differentiation of wages of workers and employees at the Sickle and Hammer plant during the NEP period. A hypothesis has been put forward about the prevalence of this trend in other metallurgical enterprises of that time. The factors that influenced the change in the wage gap have been identified: seasonal fluctuations, attempts to regulate salaries by the Soviet state and the peculiarities of the economic system of the NEP period. The general trends of remuneration in the period 1921-1928 were revealed: reduction of bonus payments, increase in time-based payments, reduction of unsystematic wage payments, increase in piecework wages. Based on these observations, it was concluded that the decrease in wage differentiation was accompanied by an increase in wages for both workers and employees due to high salaries of officials and the systematization of wages for employees of the enterprise.

wage differentiation, employment relations, new economic policy, the history of the metallurgical industry, bonus payments, piecework payment, time-based payment of labor, microanalysis, overtime work, real wages