Governments say they are not paying employees or providing allocated subsidies to industry because of low tax collection and failure to collect projected revenues. Governments also argue that corruption or incompetent management is causing the non-payment. Finally, employees say that corruption is the cause. They think that the money for wages is there, but that it is stolen by corrupt bureaucrats or managers. All these explanations are correct to one degree or another, which adds to the complexity.
Corruption is a cause of some non-payment.
In a Kazakh lead kombinat , it was discovered that while workers had not been paid for 9-12 months, top managers of the kombinat had received six months salary in advance and had invested enterprise funds in various other ventures. However, Rosenblum argued, in most cases the real causes are the larger debt problem, the overall depression of the economy, and the cycle of non-payment. In the West, a problem such as this would lead to an increase in labor movement or protest. In the former Soviet Union, however, this is not so. One reason for the low amount of labor movement is the shortage of alternative job opportunities.