SOCIAL SECURITY DEFICIT IN NEW FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT IN RUSSIAN ECONOMY
Authors:   All-Russian Research Institute of Labor, Moscow, Russia, Zabelina O.V. , Sergeeva M.V. ,   All-Russian Research Institute of Labor, Moscow, Russia
Published: June 2024

The Russian Federation has high level of social protection coverage. However, for the population that is part of the labor force, coverage of key types of social security is provided mainly through social insurance. The inclusion of citizens (as insured) in compulsory social insurance is a subject for payment of insurance premiums in their favor by employers (as insurers). Against the background of the growing involvement of the Russian population in new, non-standard forms of employment, there is an outflow of the employed population from the sphere of labor relations with social guarantees enshrined in labor legislation, into the sphere of civil law relations and even into shadow employment, as a result of which there is a risk of a shortage of social security for the economically active population. The aim of the study to assess the existing deficit of social security in Russia for workers in new forms of employment, that is carried out using legal and sociological approaches. The results of the study indicate a connection between the shortage of social security of the population employed in new forms with the lack of conscious interest among citizens in participating in insurance of possible social risks in the future, as well as the current need to purchase insurance protection at their own expense. During the transformation of the labor market and the active influx of the population into new forms of employment (including through the transition from labor relations to self-employment and entrepreneurship), the absence of a market insurance culture does not automatically lead to a redistribution of responsibility between participants in the social protection system. With a decrease in the number of employers and a consequent decrease in social protection spending, the demand for social insurance services among the population has not yet been formed. In many ways, this is due to the unwillingness of the self-employed population to lose part of their income (forming “deferred consumption”). If we turn to the figures of the average income of the self-employed, their behavior is largely understandable. In these circumstances, the problem of providing social security to the population intersects with the problem of combating poverty and low income. On the other hand, the obligations of the Russian government to provide the population with social security are enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The decrease in participants in pension and social insurance programs today leads to a gradual increase in the deficit of the social security budget in the future, in which it will become increasingly difficult to fulfill these obligations. It can be assumed that this is one of the main reasons determining the government’s interest in expanding activity in relation to social protection policy. At the same time, employees of new forms of employment, guided more by the value of “earning now”, do not show significant interest in voluntary insurance programs. In such a situation, it is possible to assume an increase in the gap between the satisfaction/sense of security of workers in new forms of employment and their growing anxiety about the social policy being implemented in the country. To conclude, Russia is currently in a “transitional stage”, when an active search is underway for a balance between legal access to social protection and demand for specific areas of social protection that requires gradual, careful work on the part of the state, with consultations with “new social partners” (for example, digital labor platforms and platform workers), as well as the selfemployed and their associations. In this context, the development of new instruments of social partnership and state regulation of social protection mechanisms for the population involved in new forms of employment seems to be an important and priority task in the near future.