Raising the Retirement Age in Russia, or How Budget Mythology Exacerbates the Social Disadvantage of the Country

The article is devoted to the assessment of socio-economic consequences of the decision to raise the retirement age in the Russian Federation. The decision to raise the retirement age was made as a result of the automatic transfer of the practice of Western countries. As the main argument of the needed decision on the age change parameters of the pension system in Russia adopted a statement on the inadmissibility of the growth of Federal budget expenditures on pension insurance, as it reduces the investment possibilities of the state. In addition, the proponents of raising the retirement age were based on the idea of absolute flexibility of the labor market, which will be able to take additional labor and will not have a situation with mass unemployment of persons of preretirement age. Also been assumed in which the labor market will not respond to additional labor through wage stagnation and the stagnation of contributions to the Pension Fund. The article deals with the main features of the Russian labor market, which affect the economic efficiency of the decision to raise the retirement age. In particular, it is pointed to the long-term trend of reducing the number of jobs in the observed economy. This creates a shortage of jobs in General for all categories of citizens and especially for people of pre-retirement age. Based on the analysis of the level of real wages in the economy, it is shown that with the current tariff of contributions to the FIU, it is necessary to balance the expenses and income of the Pension Fund (including reducing the transfer from the Federal budget), an additional inflow of labor, estimated at tens of millions of people. The factors of age discrimination, disability and fulfillment of social obligations that reduce the participation of the older generation in the labor market are also considered.