This article considers the questions of labor compensation of the industrial workers in prerevolutionary Russia based on the materials of one of the largest textile factories – Yaroslavl Big Manufactory (YBM). Attention is focused on the dynamics of nominal and real salaries at different phases of business cycle, as well as the ratio of salaries between high- and low-paid groups of workers in the early XX century (depending on the level of qualification and gender affiliation). The research contains the archival materials preserved in the State Archive of Yaroslavl Oblast in the fund of the Yaroslavl Big Manufactory (F. 674), including personal records of the employees and payroll registers for the period from the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries. The conclusion is made that during the period of economic depression until 1908, the nominal salary of YBM employees grew faster than during the industrial ramp-up of 1909 – 1913, which was justified by the policy of factory’s administration, which in 1905 – 1907 raised the prices in order to meet the demands of the strikers. At the time of economic depression, the gap in salaries of high- and low-paid categories of workers (by professional, gender, and age groups) was reduced. In 1909 – 1913, the previous level of salary differentiation gradually came back to the situation of the period of depression. The conducted research allows formulating the hypothesis that at the time of unfavorable economic conjuncture, the entrepreneurs were oriented towards reduction of salary differentiation by raising salaries of the low-paid categories to the level of higher-paid workers; while during the years of economic upswing, the level of salary differentiation was increasing again, which was justified by intention to improve labor motivation among most qualified workers.
Salary of the employees of textile industry of Yaroslavl Governorate in the early XX century