Wage Reform of the Second Half of the 1950s - early 1960s in Soviet Industry: causes, Content, significance in the system of Labor Motivation (on the example of enterprises of the Altai Territory)

The article is aimed at identifying the reasons for the reform of the wage system in the Soviet industry in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s. It also reveals the content of main directions of the reforms and assesses their significance in the system of employee motivation. The research was carried out on the basis of regional and microhistorical approaches. Two large machine-building enterprises of the Altai Territory were chosen as an object for study: a tractor plant in Rubtsovsk (ATZ) and a transport engineering plant (Transmash) in Barnaul. The authors studied two main directions in the implementation of the reform. First - the impact on the problem of labor turnover. The main measures included the reduction of the number of wage scales and their unification, as well as the establishment of the system of district coefficients for wages. The analysis of the results of these activities in the Altai industry showed that differences in the wages of workers of different ranks, working conditions and industries were preserved, which ensured a steady flow of personnel to the machine-building plants under study. The district coefficient introduced by the reform for the Altai Territory was canceled in several years, which made it impossible to provide increased wages in the region and, compensating for housing and other social problems, to reduce the high level of staff turnover. The second direction of reform was to increase the role of wages in stimulating intensive work by establishing a strict relationship between remuneration and labor results. The main method was the increase of the basic wages through the toughening of the norm setting. During the period of the active norm revision, the studied enterprises showed an increase in the growth rates of labor productivity, but the effect was short-lived for several reasons: 1) factory managers were not deprived of the opportunity to influence the wages of workers; 2) the need to increase the earnings of the workers remained acute. The reasons for the acuteness of this need went beyond the wage system and, according to the authors, implied 1) the irregular character of the Soviet production determining the systematic use of overtime work, which created the need for managers to ensure the loyalty of workers; 2) technological condition of enterprises with obsolete equipment depriving of the opportunities to maintain wages while raising production rates; 3) high level of staff turnover. Already during the implementation of the reform, enterprises started to develop practices that ensured the growth of workers' salaries, but weakened the dependence of remuneration on labor results, which led to the decline in the productivity growth. Thus, despite the fact that the reform eliminated a number of deformations in the wage system, it did not have a sustainable positive impact on the effectiveness of compensation incentives. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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