Whereas twenty-five years ago most of Russians opposed the government intervention into income distribution, today they are likely to support government control.

MOSCOW, February 11, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the following questions: what the attitudes of Russians concerning the income inequality are, and whether the government should tackle the inequality income problem.  

As twenty-five years ago, most of respondents regret to say that they do not have any opportunities to increase their incomes: 60% in  1989 and 64% in 2014. Twenty-four percent of Russians say that they can increase their revenue (earlier - 19%).

Over a quarter of a century the attitudes towards the disictibution of income have almost stayed at the same level: most of Russians think that the distribution is unfair (completely – 51% or partly – 38%). Only 5% oppose them. At the same time, Russians have changed their attitudes towards the way how the government should participate in the income distribution: 60% think that the government should intervene; 64% earlier said that the government should not intervene.

Today the income inequality is perceived differently compared to the perestroika period: whereas in 1989 the share of respondents who were motivated to improve the quality of their work to get higher income was 36%, for the time being only 18% would say that. On the contrary, the number of those who think that the income inequality is unfair has increased (from 29% to 41%).

The idea to reduce income gaps is more and more popular now. According to the recent data, 32% of Russians accept three or fourfold income gap (only 12% in 1989).  Almost one-fifth of respondents (18%) say that there is no place for millionaires in Russia (27% in 1989). Every tenth (11%) is confident that income of all citizens should be equal.

Russians increasingly hope for the government to tackle unfair income distribution. Nine out of ten (90%) think that the government should guarantee each citizen an income not lower than the minimum wage rate (84% in 1989). More Russians propose to introduce benefits for those who have low income (85% in 2014 vs. 67% in 1989). Three-quarters of Russians believe that the authorities should make efforts to restrict the income gap between the poor and the rich (74%); the share of such respondents made up 50% twenty-five years ago.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on December 20-21, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 132 communities in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.

*In 1989, the representative survey involved urban and rural populations aged 16 and over;  the sample size was 1600.

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