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Russians with Degrees Earn Peanuts: Shocking Pay Gap Revealed!

1 min read
Main Building of Lomonosov Moscow State University
Main Building of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. Alexey Popov

In Russia, slogging through university for a higher education degree might not fatten your wallet as much as you’d hope, a top professor has revealed. According to Natalia Tikhonova, a bigwig at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, folks without a degree earn a measly €1.66 an hour (179 rubles) based on 2022 data. And those with a higher education degree? They’re pocketing just €2.24 an hour (242 rubles)—a 35% bump, sure, but still pocket change!

Even brainy grads are scraping by. At €2.24 an hour, a 40-hour workweek nets you just €89.60—roughly €4,032 a year, assuming around 45 working weeks (a standard estimate for Russia, factoring in public holidays and breaks). Fast forward to 2023–2024, and even with reported income growth of 25–30% (let’s be generous and say 35% for degree-holders), that still only comes out to about €5,443 a year. Hardly enough to live the high life in Putin’s backyard.

So, is a Russian degree worth the paper it’s printed on? You decide!

Exchange rate used: 1 RUB = 0.0093 EUR (approx., as of April 2025).

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