r/belarus • u/Olegzs • Feb 20 '25
Эканоміка / Economy What is the current situation regarding salaries and prices?
Прывітанне! Your Latvian neighbor here!
I was discussing salaries across Europe, and also Belarus with my father (unfortunately he's a semi - vatnik), and he was like: "But then you need to take local prices into consideration. You now, my grandfather during USSR could afford...". And it got me curious about how average Belarusian is doing? Дзякуй!
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u/Suspicious_Good_2407 Feb 20 '25
Nah, that doesn't work like that. The prices in some of the EU countries are on the same/similar level for most of the products while the salaries are shit in Belarus in comparison.
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u/kitten888 Feb 20 '25 edited Feb 20 '25
Калі хочаце даведацца пакупальніцкую здольнасць заробкаў, трэба глядзець паказчык Purchase Power Parity (PPP). Вось звесткі па сярэдніх заробках у Эўропе пасля падаткаў і пакупальніцкая здольнасць:
- Lithuania €1,376 PPP: 2,752
- Estonia €1,630 PPP: 2,672
- Belarus €603 PPP: 2,414
- Latvia €1,231 PPP: 2,367
Ваш бацька мае рацыю. Нягледзячы на ўдвая меншыя заробкі за Латвію, беларус можа набыць трошкі больш за латыша.
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u/OkTraffic3553 May 23 '25
unfortunately this is based on completely overvalued average Belarusian wages
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u/kitten888 May 26 '25
Jaki siaredni zarobak u Biełarusi? Dajcie vašu krynicu.
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u/SevereWrangler7006 Jul 23 '25
As the resident of Minsk who born there, median salary (if we don't take into account IT, gas/oil sector, mining) is somewhere between 1000 - 2500 belarussian rubles (342 - 855 USD), most jobs offer salary like this.
Of course in Minsk there're more IT companies with salary 1000, 1500, 2000 USD. But this is more like 2-3% of overall workers here.
So if we believe official statistics median salary is more likely 500 USD in Minsk. In other cities, regions salaries are 1,5 times lower, but prices and rent lower as well.
What about this:
- Lithuania €1,376 PPP: 2,752
- Estonia €1,630 PPP: 2,672
- Belarus €603 PPP: 2,414
- Latvia €1,231 PPP: 2,367
It's not accurate.
People from Baltic states are generally more rich than people of Belarus, since they have more foreign business, investments, have possibilities to flee into EU/US without and come back without troubles.
In Belarus. If you learn abroad, for example in Poland, Germany or any western country, you can go back, but you can also get into prison for this, since you're seen as the malovelent western agent who can make coup d'état here
So overall they have way better quality of life than Belarus, I can say for sure.
Average salary in Belarus overall for working class and government workers is somewhere between 300 to 600 USD.
People are not hungry there, but most have money only for food and cheap clothes, as well as other basic spendings, very modest and ascetic life.
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u/kitten888 Jul 25 '25
Thank you for clarification. Notice, Belarusian with one S is the correct ethnonym.
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u/marnatrauny Feb 20 '25
It is also necessary to take into account that the official statistics in Belarus are very dubious. The official average salary in Belarus is 2693,9 belarusian rubles (776 USD at the official rate at the time of publication of that article), the official median salary is 1792,2 roubles (516 USD). But in the job bank the median salary in job offers is 1000 rubles (288 USD). And from these figures you need to subtract 14% for taxes