After 16 years of gradual hikes, Putin signs a law giving him one more year to raise Russia's minimum wage to the subsistence level

Vladimir Putin has signed a law gradually raising the minimum wage to Russia’s subsistence minimum level. On January 1, 2018, Russia’s minimum wage will rise from 7,800 rubles ($135) a month to 9,489 rubles ($164), bringing salaries to 85 percent of the monthly subsistence minimum for the country’s able-bodied working population (11,163 rubles, or $193).

Starting on January 1, 2019, the minimum wage will match the subsistence minimum from the second quarter of the previous year. If the subsistence minimum falls, the minimum wage will remain unchanged.

Since 2002, Russia’s Labor Code has prohibited a minimum wage below the country’s minimum subsistence level. Ever since, the federal government has been implementing a “step-by-step increase.”