What are the main directions of social policy. Tasks and directions of social policy of the Russian Federation

Social policy consists of two basic areas:

• o Ensuring a decent level and quality of life for the population;
• o regulation of the labor market.

Achieving the highest level and quality of life - priority goal of the state social policy. One of the main tools for solving this problem is a constant (but economically justified) increase in the personal incomes of the population, which is understood as the totality of material resources received by citizens in one way or another.

These incomes are divided into cash and in-kind. Types of cash income:

• o for completing job duties(salary, bonuses);
• o from the sale of the results of personal labor;
• o from capital (dividends, interest, profit), rent;
• o borrowed (received loans, credits);
• o risky (from playing on the stock exchange, sweepstakes, winning the lottery, etc.);
• o donor (allowances, pensions, scholarships);
• o transferable (inheritance, alimony).

In-kind income is formed by products created in households for personal consumption.

Cash income "at the source" is called nominal. If their value is reduced by the amount of taxes, mandatory payments and voluntary contributions, as a result we will have disposable income.

Disposable income arises from production activities, redistributive transactions (subsidies and transfers, except for social transfers in kind minus taxes paid and current transfers, including taxes on income and wealth), property ownership.

Citizens can use such income to pay for purchased goods and services, as well as to save in various forms (bank deposits, bonds, etc.). Adjusting these incomes for inflation will give us real disposable income.

Expenditure on the purchase of goods and services and the value of individual goods and services received by households in the form of social transfers in kind form their actual final consumption.

The main component of the population's income is wages. Wages are paid in cash, and sometimes partially in kind (in the form of products, things, free services).

Minimal salary low-skilled workers in most countries is regulated by law. However, in some states (for example, in Russia), we are talking about monthly wages, and in others (USA) - hourly. The first approach is more socially oriented, as it provides employees with a guarantee of obtaining a livelihood for a relatively long period of time; the second is oriented purely economically.

The minimum hourly wage in accordance with the recommendations of the ILO (International Labor Organization) should be at least $ 3 per hour, but in our country it is much lower.

The starting point for determining the minimum wages(as well as pensions, scholarships, allowances, various social benefits) usually serves living wage. This is the level of income that allows you to purchase a set of goods and services necessary to ensure human life at a certain level of social economic development country and the prevailing needs of the population. Its value is set on a quarterly basis by summing up mandatory payments, fees, the cost of the consumer basket (the main component), as well as data on the level of consumer prices, changes in taxes by the Russian Government and local authorities for different categories of the population.

Other guidelines for determining the subsistence minimum, taking into account the possibilities of the economy, can be:

• o average income of 10-20% of the poorest part of the population;
• o sociological surveys;
• o half of the average per capita income;
• o three times the cost of the food package (US);
• o a wider range of manufactured goods.

Consumer basket is the minimum set of food, as well as non-food goods and services necessary to sustain people's livelihoods. Usually it is developed for different categories of the population (working population, pensioners and children) and is approved by law at least once every five years. When determining the content of the consumer basket, natural climatic conditions, national traditions, etc.

The minimum standards for the consumption of food products, non-food products and services are determined taking into account:

• o scientific recommendations on the minimum volume and list of goods and services necessary to maintain health and ensure human life;
• o the actual volume of consumption of goods and services in low-income families;
• o the composition and age and sex structure of the population, the size and structure of families;
• o financial capacity of the state to ensure social protection of the population.

Eight subsistence minimums are believed to provide a rational consumer budget (a high-affluence budget) in accordance with scientifically based norms.

average salary is a calculated value and is determined by dividing the total payroll by the average number of employees (or the number of man-hours worked) for the period. Like income, wages can be nominal or real. Nominal (cash) wages are characterized by the amount of money paid; real - by the number of goods that can be purchased with this money. An increase in taxes and prices in the general case leads to a reduction in real wages (even with an increase in commemorative wages), and vice versa.

In most developed countries, there is a trend towards rising wages for high-paid categories of workers and a gap in the pay of women and men (mainly stemming from the structure of employment).

Incomes of the population largely shape the level and quality of life of the population (country, region, individual social groups etc.).

Under standard of living is understood as the totality of the living conditions of the population corresponding to the achieved state of the economic development of society. This is the degree of satisfaction of people's needs, expressed by a system of the following specific indicators:

• o average monthly accrued wages in the economy;
• o cash income per capita per month;
• o the average size of assigned pensions;
• o living wage on average per capita per month;
• o the number of people with incomes below the subsistence level;
• o the ratio of average per capita income and the subsistence minimum;
• o the ratio of accrued wages and the subsistence minimum;
• o the ratio of the average pension to the subsistence minimum;
• o decile coefficient.

Table 11.2

The main socio-economic indicators of the standard of living of the population in Russian Federation

Indicators
Actual household final consumption (at current prices):
Billion rubles (1995 - trillion rubles)
per capita), rub. (1995 - thousand rubles)
AT % to the previous year (in comparable prices)
Average per capita monetary income of the population, rub. per month), (1995 - thousand rubles)
Real cash income of the population, in % of the previous year
Average monthly nominal accrued wages of those working in the economy, rub. (1995 - thousand rubles)
Real accrued wages, in % of the previous year
The average size of assigned pensions), rub. (1995 - thousand rubles)
Real amount of assigned pensions), in % to the previous year
Subsistence minimum) (average per capita):
rub. per month (1995 - thousand rubles)
In % to the previous year (1995 - times)
Million people
Here total strength population
In % to the previous year
Correlation with the subsistence minimum, %:
Average per capita cash income")
Average monthly nominal accrued wages
The average size of assigned pensions
Coefficient of funds (coefficient of income differentiation), in times

The quality of life population - a generalizing characteristic of the level of consumption of goods and services, the development of health care, life expectancy, the state of the environment, the moral and psychological climate, the ability of the population to satisfy spiritual needs, etc. The level of quality of life varies depending on the socio-economic situation of society.

In 1990, the United Nations introduced the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines data on national per capita income, adult education, and life expectancy. The Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program, published on November 2, 2011, states that Russia is in 66th place out of 187 countries. The value of the Russian indicator is 0.755. Thus, the Russian Federation is included in the group of countries with a high HDI. However, across the region Eastern Europe and Central Asia (31 countries), which includes Russia, our country is in 17th place. The leader of the group is Slovenia - 0.884 (21st place in the world) Of the countries of the former USSR, Russia is ahead of Estonia - 0.835 (4th place in the group / 34th place in the world), Lithuania - 0.810 (9th / 40th ), Latvia - 0.805 (10th/43rd) and Belarus - 0.756 (16th/65th).

In other words, it failed to transform economic opportunities into real well-being.

Consider the situation with the distribution of income in modern society.

In any society, there is a differentiation of the population according to the level of income. In many (primarily European) countries, it becomes an object of close attention of state bodies, because its excess of certain threshold values ​​leads to an increase in tension and creates the potential for a social explosion.

Income differentiation is characterized by several tools.

First, it is the Lorenz curve, which shows how much their actual distribution differs from the uniform one (Fig. 11.2). When constructing the curve, the abscissa shows the shares of families (as a percentage of their total number), and the ordinate shows the shares of their disposable income. In other words, the curve shows what percentage of society's income is received by a given percentage of families. The uniform distribution of income is represented on the graph by a bisector, the real distribution is a concave curve. The space between the bisector and the curve reflects the degree of income inequality - the larger the corresponding area, the greater its degree.

Rice. 11.2.

Secondly, to characterize social stratification, the so-called decile coefficient is used, which shows the ratio between the average income of the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of citizens. In the developed countries of the West, this coefficient is 5-7 (it is believed that a psychologically acceptable income gap does not exceed 8).

In the West, the developed countries monitor closely enough to ensure that there is no excessive gap between the rich and the poor, as, for example, in Brazil (46 times). In Germany this gap is 7:1, in France it is 9:1, while in the USA where maximum degree liberalization of the economy, - 16:1.

Thirdly, the population income concentration index (Gini coefficient). If all citizens had the same income, then the Gini coefficient would be equal to 0, and if concentrated in the hands of one person, it would be 1. The coefficient shows the degree of deviation of the actual distribution of income in society from uniform.

The dynamics of income distribution in the Russian Federation is presented in Table. 11.3.

At present, in developed countries, the social structure of the population looks something like this:

• - rich - 10-15%;
• - poor - 15-20% (poverty is the inability to maintain minimum living standards). Today, the concept of "new poor" has appeared: they include people who have access to social benefits, housing, income several times higher than the subsistence minimum, but its source is unstable;
• - middle class - 65-75%. The basis of its allocation is the level of income, prosperity. Middle class ensures the stability of society. In the West, this is the predominant part of the economically active population.

Thus, social inequality in the country continues to increase, which is a serious social problem. Apparently, in the future, as the Russian economy develops, this imbalance in income will be somewhat mitigated, which requires an appropriate policy and energetic efforts on the part of state bodies.

Along with a sharp gap in income between the richest social group and the rest of the citizens, no less serious social inequality is observed in income between the regions of Russia. This situation violates the common economic space of our state. It should be noted that if in developed countries the share of wages in national income is 65-75%, then in Russia it is about 30%. Therefore, in our country, 1 dollar of wages produces 2.7 times more GDP than in the United States, and 2.5 times more than in Japan. Therefore, in a civilized society, the state pursues a policy of income regulation aimed at solving two main tasks:

Indicators
Total cash income, %
Including for 20% population groups:
First (with the lowest income)
Fourth
Fifth (with the highest income)
Coefficient of funds (income differentiation coefficient), times
Gini coefficient (income concentration index)

• 1) protection of socially unprotected segments of the population and easing social tension;
• 2) the development of human capital, without which the effective development of the country in the 21st century is impossible. Therefore, it plays an important role in solving social issues.

There are four groups of income regulation tools:

• 1) economic instruments (minimum wage, tariff scale and tariff rates for public sector employees, etc.);
• 2) normative-legal (taxation rates, labor and rest norms, etc.);
• 3) administrative (licensing, quotas);
• 4) conciliation (coordination of actions regarding income between the government, entrepreneurs and employees or trade unions).

Now let's look at specific ways to use them.

First of all, it is necessary to note such a method of income regulation as the determination of the subsistence minimum by the state.

Measures of state regulation of income also include the establishment of guaranteed prices for certain goods and services for certain categories of the population (pensioners, the disabled, the unemployed). A measure of state regulation of income (although, as practice has shown, not quite effective) is indexation, which involves linking them to an increase in consumer prices. This provides full or partial compensation for population losses. Indexing is carried out at the level of both society and individual enterprises.

Wages, savings, pensions, scholarships, allowances, etc. can be indexed. Indexation can be retrospective (according to the price growth rate in the previous period) and expected (to compensate for the forecast price growth). Two forms of indexing are known - automatic and semi-automatic. The first assumes that incomes rise automatically in line with the increase in prices, which accelerates it even more.

Semi-automatic indexing, also called contractual indexing, involves state level consultations with the participation of employers, trade unions, representatives of the state, experts, as a result of which recommendations are developed on establishing the lower threshold of social protection at the conclusion collective agreements concluded at each enterprise independently.

Often the indexation system provides for a differentiated approach depending on the amount of income - from full compensation of the lowest to close to zero - the highest.

Usually, indexation covers a small part of workers - mainly employed in the public sector, as well as pensioners, and is episodic.

An instrument of income redistribution is the encouragement by the state of private charitable activities carried out by non-profit organizations.

Consider the state policy in the field of social protection of the population.

Under social protection of the population in a broad sense, the activity of the state is understood, aimed at creating conditions that ensure a decent life for citizens (material security at the level of modern requirements, personal security, access to cultural values, the possibility of physical and spiritual development etc.). Social protection in narrow sense words - a system of measures to maintain the living standards of able-bodied and disabled citizens who are in a difficult life situation and are unable to overcome it without external support. Thus, the social protection of the population can be considered both as a means of shaping the personality, and as state and public support for certain categories of the population.

Distinguish between active and passive social protection. The first is aimed at able-bodied members of society; the second - for disabled and socially vulnerable persons who cannot help themselves.

Social protection performs the following main functions:

• 1) economic - compensation for income lost due to age, disability, loss of a breadwinner, as well as partial reimbursement of additional expenses arising in connection with certain life circumstances, and providing assistance to low-income citizens;
• 2) political - maintaining social stability in society with a significant gap in the standard of living of individual segments of the population;
• 3) demographic - stimulating the birth rate, reducing mortality, increasing life expectancy;
• 4) social rehabilitation - restoration of the social status of disabled persons and socially weak groups of the population.

Those in need of social protection include:

• o able-bodied persons of working age (unemployed, unemployed, refugees, migrants discharged from military service, women on maternity leave, child care, etc.);
• o disabled persons of working age (disabled, etc.);
• o persons under the age of working age (orphans, neglected, disabled);
• o persons older than working age (single, elderly, pensioners, war veterans);
• o other people in need of help (poor, young families with children, people in difficult situations).

In Russia, there are the following types of social protection.

Firstly, social cash payments , which are divided into two groups.

• 1. Social payments, as a rule, due to previous employment, provided primarily by the social insurance system and financed from special off-budget funds. They apply to insured persons (the main category is employees) and are provided in case of loss or significant reduction in earnings (income), if necessary, medical care and other social services. This includes insurance payments (pensions) and insurance benefits (short-term or one-time) - for temporary disability, unemployment, at the birth of a child, as well as compensation for workers (for example, those on forced leave without pay), material assistance to the unemployed, etc.
• 2. Social payments at the expense of budgets of all levels and funds of public organizations not related to the performance of labor duties. We are talking about social assistance to the poor, benefits in accordance with the status or other grounds, such as housing subsidies, payments to war invalids, etc.

Secondly, payments in kind (free food, clothes, shoes, vehicles, fuel).

Thirdly, social services (medical services on compulsory and voluntary medical insurance, as well as on social services for people in difficult life situations).

Fourth, social support population, providing for the provision of cash payments, benefits, compensations to able-bodied persons who temporarily find themselves in a difficult situation.

An important role in the system of social protection of the population is played by social guarantees - measures for the implementation by the state of the constitutional rights of citizens to receive the most important social benefits and services:

• o choice of place of work and professional activity;
• o the minimum wage;
• o minimum pension;
• o a one-time allowance for the birth of each child;
• o monthly allowance for the period of parental leave until the child reaches the age of 1.5 years;
• o monthly allowance for each child;
• o monthly allowance for the children of single mothers, military personnel undergoing military service on call, etc.;
• o ritual allowance;
• o minimum unemployment benefit;
• o minimum scholarship amount;
• o housing;
• o health care and medical care;
• o education.

In the USA, for example, the state implements various social programs, which spend about half of the federal budget, including unemployment benefits, medical care, etc. (37% of the federal budget); assistance to the poor - free medical care, food, affordable housing (16%). This is both a result and a condition for the high efficiency of the economy.

As a result, the listed measures of social protection somewhat reduce the differentiation of incomes of the population. At the same time, the value of social transfers in society is limited by its financial capabilities. The implementation of the main directions of social protection of the population requires an appropriate infrastructure. Its objects can be not only public, but also private.

Consider the state policy in the field labor relations and employment.

Today, in the conditions of the industrial, post-industrial, and in a number of countries - the informational stage of economic development, 80-90% of people involved in the process of economic activity work as employees.

In the second half of the XX century. There have been significant changes in the nature of work.

• 1. The share of the sphere of material production and physical labor, and, accordingly, of workers, has sharply decreased, and the share of the service sector and intellectual labor has increased. In advanced countries, it already exceeds 90%.
• 2. The line between predominantly physical and predominantly mental labor is quickly blurred. It is fully preserved only in developing countries.
• 3. The educational level of the population has significantly increased. Today, all workers must have a general secondary education and vocational training.
• 4. The need for intellectualization and humanization of labor has increased.

The above circumstances leave a significant imprint on the state of the labor market and force the governments of most states to regulate it, which involves solving a set of tasks:

• o decrease in unemployment;
• o optimization of the employment structure (by industry, region, type of activity);
• o organizing and stimulating the training, retraining and advanced training of personnel. In the industry of Russia there is an acute need for qualified workers. According to some estimates, there are only 5-6% of highly qualified workers in the country, while in the USA they are 43%, Germany - 56%, France - 38%. Most of of skilled workers in Russia is close to 60 years old, which requires the adoption of emergency measures, since in the conditions of scientific and technical progress the need for qualified personnel will constantly increase;
• o management of migration processes;
• o regulation of wages and labor relations.

There are two approaches to the problem of unemployment in the West.

The first arose in connection with the Great Depression of the 1930s, when its level reached 25% in the United States, and arose real threat social explosion. Unemployment was seen as a social evil, which the state had to fight at any cost, achieving absolute employment.

The second arose due to the fact that, despite all efforts, mass unemployment (and in Western countries it is 9-12%, which, however, is 2-3 times less than in the 1930s) could not be overcome . Therefore, the concept of "natural" unemployment has arisen, which is defined as a combination of structural and frictional, which should not be fought at all. Unemployment began to find even useful (from the point of view of the interests of employers) sides - the creation of a reserve work force, an incentive to increase productivity and maintain discipline.

There is a high level of unemployment in our country as well. The state regulation of the labor market is aimed at reducing it and achieving a high level of employment. It allows you to ensure that the supply of labor in the sectoral and regional context, the demand for it in quantitative and qualitative terms.

In order to alleviate the problem of unemployment in one form or another, our state is pursuing an employment policy - a system of measures aimed at preventing layoffs, stimulating the creation of new jobs, as well as providing social assistance to people who have lost their jobs. Let's call these measures:

• 1. Organization of public works (historically the first measure; in the USA it was undertaken in the 1930s). It assumes the creation by the state at the expense of the budget of new jobs for a non-competitive labor force (including for people living below the poverty level):
  • - young people with incomplete secondary education;
  • - those who do not have the necessary vocational training;
  • - disabled people with physical disabilities;
  • - former prisoners; etc.

These are the following types of work:

• - creation of basic infrastructure (roads, cheap housing, schools, hospitals, street cleaning, etc.);
• - social assistance to the elderly and disabled, care for children and the sick;
• - environmental protection measures.

This is considered quite advantageous, since there is no need to pay unemployment benefits; at the same time, new goods are created, and the budget receives taxes.

• 2. Regulation of employment by:
  • - official shortening of the duration working week;
  • - encouragement of early retirement (at the same time, due to the increase in life expectancy, in many countries the question of establishing a higher retirement age is being raised);
  • - immigration restrictions.
• 3. Organization of labor exchanges (appeared in the second half of the 19th century) for mediation between workers and employers. They carry out:
  • - accounting and employment (refusal to work in the direction leads to the loss of the right to benefits);
  • - informing employees who want to change their profession about vacancies;
  • - assistance in retraining;
  • - professional orientation of youth.
• 4. Creation of unemployment insurance funds. It is assumed that the amount and timing of the payment of benefits from them should be such as to lift people out of poverty and at the same time stimulate the search for work.

At the same time, it should be noted that the social sphere is currently being actively reformed and modernized, which will accordingly require the improvement of Russian legislation.

SOCIAL POLICY OF THE STATE AND INCOME GENERATION

The main trends in the formation of the social economy

Market mechanism of income generation

Features of the social policy of the state in Russia

Social policy is one of the most important areas of state regulation of the economy, because the ultimate goal of the state is to achieve a high level of welfare of society and create conditions for its further development. One of the “fathers” of the “welfare society” in Germany, Alfred Müller-Armack, wrote: “The social market economy proceeds from the real basis of the existence of the market and market forces and, at the same time, tries to use the purposefully unoriented forces of this market to achieve social security and improving the public environment at the same time.”

Essence and main directions of social policy

The functioning of the market mechanism does not in itself guarantee the necessary minimum level of well-being for all citizens to which they are entitled. The global crisis of the 1930s, accompanied by a sharp increase in social tension in a number of countries, proved the need for state intervention in market processes, including in the social sphere. Social conflicts that become a reality in the absence of a reasonable social policy, in modern conditions, where nuclear power plants operate, hazardous chemical production, there is nuclear weapon may bring the world to the brink of disaster.

At the present stage of development of scientific and technological progress, no economic system is able to ensure economic growth without the use of the creative, innovative potential of man, and, therefore, the human factor becomes decisive in the socio-economic development of society. All this predetermines the need for state intervention in socio-economic processes through the development and implementation of social policy.

Social policy solves problems that ensure the normal development of society. These include:

Social protection of a person and his basic socio-economic rights;

Providing conditions for improving the well-being of each person and society as a whole;

Maintaining a certain status of various social groups and relations between them, the formation and reproduction of the optimal social structure of society;

Development of social infrastructure (housing and communal services, transport and communications, education, healthcare, informatization). The volume, quality and nature of the products of these industries should ensure normal conditions for the life and reproduction of the population. These include urban and territorial planning, environmental protection;

Formation of economic incentives for participation in social production;

Creation of conditions for the comprehensive development of a person, satisfaction of his needs, etc. opportunities for self-employment.

There is a relationship between social policy and the level of economic development of society. On the one hand, the solution of many tasks of social policy is determined by the economic resources that the state can direct to solve them. For example, to implement the "Swedish model", characterized by a high level of social costs, it is necessary to create an economy that has the appropriate resource base. On the other hand, social policy can be regarded as the most important factor in economic growth, since it is thanks to a targeted social policy that conditions for the growth and implementation of innovative potential labor resources of society.

The main task of social policy is formation of an effective system of social protection. Let us single out the main directions of social policy in this area.

First direction - support for the poorest segments of the population (as a rule, these are those who are already or are not yet able to independently provide a minimum standard of living - the sick, the disabled, the elderly, large families). In order to find out which categories of the population are entitled to social assistance, the subsistence minimum indicator is used, which includes minimum standards for satisfying physiological needs, payment for basic services. These norms are determined by the level of economic development of the country and the formed system of needs of the population.

Social security is carried out in the form of a wide range of social services: cash payments, coupons for free food and clothing, home care for the elderly and disabled, provision of places in homes for the elderly and disabled, etc.

In order to provide each person, regardless of their income level, with a certain minimum of vital benefits, cheap public housing funds are created, free public schools operate, students from low-income families receive special scholarships, discounts on tuition fees, targeted loans for the period of study, persons with low level income or with certain diseases, free or preferential medical care is provided, assistance in acquiring necessary medicines. Each country forms its own social security system. The highest level of social security has been achieved in Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Denmark.

As a rule, social protection programs are financed by the federal budget and specialized off-budget funds (social insurance fund, pension fund), and practical assistance is organized by local authorities, public and charitable organizations, and the church.

Second direction - guaranteeing the right to work. The state must guarantee the equality of subjects in the labor market, the free choice of profession, scope and place of employment. In order for citizens to exercise these rights, there must be a public system for obtaining secondary, special, higher education. Socially acceptable working conditions, the level of the minimum wage, the duration of the working week, vacations, etc., should be regulated by law, and the rights of workers when hiring or firing should be determined. It should be noted that the control over the observance of their rights should be carried out by the workers themselves, uniting in trade unions, parties, etc.

Third direction- regulation of employment. This includes the development and implementation of programs to create new jobs in both the state and non-state sectors of the economy, employment programs for the disabled, obliging enterprises to provide the latter with a certain percentage of the total number of jobs.

Programs are being developed to combat unemployment and help the unemployed. The implementation of such programs is usually carried out by labor exchanges, whose functions include studying the labor market, determining which specialists are in demand at the present time and what changes in the labor market situation are possible in the future. In accordance with this, training, retraining, retraining and relocation of the workforce are planned and carried out. In addition, labor exchanges pay benefits to the unemployed. The benefit should be limited in amount and time in order to encourage the unemployed to look for a new job. In conditions of inflation, the benefit may partially take a non-monetary form (stamps for the purchase of products, free clothes, shoes, benefits for paying utility bills).

The fund for helping the unemployed is formed from three sources: mandatory contributions from entrepreneurs; employees' contributions; budget subsidies.

The question naturally arises: what basic principles should be taken into account when developing a social strategy, a social program of action and concrete measures of social policy?

We highlight five key principles.

The first. Acts of state intervention, inasmuch as they are necessary for social reasons, must meet the requirements of the market, i.e. carried out in such a way that the price mechanism as a signaling device continues to function and that the market order with stimulating and consistent competition is not disturbed.

Second. Formation of a social protection mechanism not on the basis of state charity, but as a set of state guarantees provided to everyone and ensuring the observance of human rights. To develop such a system, it is necessary to define social standards that reflect the standard of living, life and working conditions.

Third. A differentiated approach to different strata and groups of the population, depending on the social status, age, ability to work and the degree of economic independence.

Fourth. Creation of an integrated, multi-level system of social protection (state bodies - local authorities - enterprises - public organizations), effective at all levels, with a clear definition of the rights, responsibilities and functions of everyone.

Fifth. The scale of redistributive processes in society should not exceed the optimal size, allowing to maintain incentives for qualified, creative, efficient work.

Speaking of social policy, one cannot but touch upon the problem of its economic efficiency. The problem of the economic efficiency of social policy is periodically the subject of theoretical discussions. Supporters of liberalism argue that any social intervention reduces the efficiency of a market economy. In support of their point of view, they present the following arguments.

1. Social security activities can negatively impact labor utilization and employment status. Unemployment benefits make it possible to delay the search for a new job and at the same time lead to an increase in the claims of the unemployed, since the one who receives the benefit will not give consent to

any job at any level of pay. “The job loss insurance system creates a rigid wage structure, reduces labor mobility and increases unemployment. In all socially responsible market economies, health care costs, sick pay, and absenteeism are on the rise. On the whole, this leads to a high cost economy in which real wages are lower than they would be if the market were not socialized.

In addition, social security costs, being part of the cost of wages, make the labor factor too expensive, thereby reducing the competitiveness of enterprises in the foreign market.

2. Social security promotes a redistribution of income from higher-income strata of the population to lower-income groups of the population, which generally increases consumer spending in society, but can lead to reduced savings, reduced capital accumulation and, therefore, to less economic growth.

3. Management costs increase due to the growth of organizational structures involved in the development and implementation of social policy.

4. It is possible to expand the shadow economic activity, as the number of people willing to avoid paying excessive taxes, which are a source of funding for social programs, is growing.

Supporters of the social economy point to the following facts as counterarguments.

1. As part of the social policy, measures are taken to improve the structure and quality of the labor force, new jobs are created, and assistance is provided in finding a job.

2. In countries with economies in transition, without social security, the process of privatization and changes in the structure of the economy would become impossible due to the inevitable growth of unemployment and other negative phenomena in the social sphere.

3. Ensuring social stability is of great importance for creating a favorable investment climate in the country, which creates prerequisites for economic growth. This factor is especially important for countries with economies in transition.

In general, when balancing the negative and positive effects of social policy, it should be borne in mind that the absence of social policy endangers the social and economic security of society. Therefore, obviously, we should not talk about whether social policy is needed as such, but about the need to find some optimal combination of liberalism and social guarantees that allows the free development of structures that successfully operate in market conditions and helps to adapt to new conditions. life for those who need support from the state.

Similar information.

As already noted, the market economy does not eliminate social inequality, threatens social stability, and under adverse conditions reduces economic efficiency. Social policy is designed to help alleviate the extreme effects of market forces. To this end, the state pursues a policy of supporting vulnerable social groups. It does not require proof and the fact that almost all social strata strive to be socially protected, including entrepreneurs; the last state must guarantee the inviolability of their property, the right to entrepreneurial activity in any area of ​​the market economy.

The main directions of social policy:

Guaranteed minimum wages and income regulation in general;

Ensuring employment of the population and providing unemployment assistance;

Indexation of fixed incomes and protection of monetary savings of the population (deposits in banks, government bonds, insurance policies);

Providing assistance to the poorest segments of the population;

Creation of conditions for self-realization of a person (free choice of profession, sphere and place of work, obtaining the desired level of general and special education, material support and retraining of temporarily disabled people) osib);

Ensuring the protection of public health, regardless of income level

Let us consider more broadly the content of social policy in these areas

Revenue Policy Takes a Leading Place in Government Regulation social relations First of all, it concerns the level of wages and its share in. GDP, income redistribution in favor of the poorest strata of the population.

The income policy was developed by representatives of almost all areas of economic thought. The general principles of this aspect of social policy were formulated in the postwar period, and in the early 1960s they received the status of unofficial but mandatory postulates. Proponents of these principles include such well-known scientists as. J. K. Galbraith,. R. Thibodz,. P. Samuelson,. S. V. Winetraut,. M. Friedman (USA). M. Marshall. J. Lecayon (France). R. Harrod,. N. Calder (Great Britain).

The income policy of the welfare state is based on the recognition of the constant and, preferably, the anticipatory nature of its implementation. Neo-Keynesians and representatives of the sociological trend advocate direct state intervention in the process of income distribution. The main object of influence is wages. On the basis of indicative programming, wage growth benchmarks, state control and shock control over prices are set. Since wage growth is taken as the leading factor in inflation, the state often resorts to "freezing" wages and prices; those. carries out a "policy of containment" of the opposite, and there is a "policy of expansion", in which it is stimulated by the growth of incomes of the population.

Considering the special social significance of income redistribution, welfare state tries to avoid two extremes, namely: the formation of consumer sentiment in the low-income segments of the population and a decrease in motivation for fruitful work in the economically active population.

In the market, there is always a dilemma, what to choose from two fundamentally different options - market distribution, which is adjusted by government regulation, or government distribution, which is directed by the market. If we strive for income equality, which, according to many, is socially fair, then economic efficiency will inevitably decrease, since the individual works more productively, society takes away, and gives back to the inefficient worker. Distribution according to the laws of the free market is highly productive, but uneven and socially unfair. So, equal distribution is socially fair, but economically effective, and uneven, on the contrary, socially unfair, but economically efficient.

"Pure" market distribution, ensuring high efficiency of the economy, creates an opportunity to compensate for its injustice by producing the total product in volumes sufficient to improve the well-being of the low-income part of the population. In contrast to this, "fair" (egalitarian) distribution undermines incentives for fruitful work and causes a low volume of the total product. We see that an even market distribution has objective advantages over an equal, "socially just" distribution. Historical progress brings these two approaches together, but does not eliminate their differences.

Income inequality in a market economy is defined using a curve. Lorentz and coefficient. Gini. Curve. Lorentz shows the degree of uneven distribution of the total income of society between different. Groups of the population (Fig. 99).

The x-axis plots percentage groups of the population, and the y-axis plots the percentage of income that these groups receive. Rivne distribution

income fits the curve. OE. If we apply the actual distribution of income, then the curve. Lorenza will indicate the degree of income inequality. The greater the gap between the full equality line and the curve. Lorenz, the higher the stump of inequality.

The ratio of the shaded area to the area of ​​the entire OAF triangle is called the ratio. Gini. The greater the deviation of the curve. Lorentz from the bisector of complete equality in the distribution of income, then the coefficient nt is closer. Gini up to 1. The higher the coefficient. Gini, the gap between the poor and the rich is deeper.

There is a certain relationship between the amount of wealth that is distributed and the stability of the proportions of distribution. The distribution of low incomes is characterized by sharp and unpredictable fluctuations, and for achieving a higher level of income, distribution proportions are stable. This dependence is called the law. Paretoto.

. State regulation of wages. Most income comes from the wages of employees, so the social state clearly regulates labor relations. The minimum wage rate, the minimum rate of compensatory additional payments (for work in unfavorable, harmful and hazardous conditions), tariff conditions for remuneration of workers and employees in traditional professions and positions.

The size of the minimum wage and additional payments depends on the level of economic development of the country, the balance of political forces, etc. For reasons analyzed in previous topics, in Ukraine the level of the minimum wage is below the subsistence level. To date, the minimum wage is 185 UAH, while the cost of living is 360 UAH.

In the field of wage regulation, the state seeks to achieve the following goals: 1) to provide every working person with a vital level of consumption; 2) to maintain a certain balance in the wages of their various groups of the population; 3) bring wages in line with their productivity, 4) raise the level of real wages.

The payment of the minimum wage is mandatory for the employer. Theoretically, this is the socially necessary price of labor power.

Legislatively, the minimum wage began to be established from the 30s of pp XX Art. First, the corresponding law was passed in. USA (1938 p), and in post-war years- and in other market countries

The calculation of the minimum wage is based on the cost of the so-called consumer basket, which includes the minimum set of consumer goods and services necessary to satisfy their physiological and social needs of an unskilled worker and his family. The volume of the consumer basket in different countries unequal. Yes, in In the United States, it includes the payment of rented housing, the purchase of a supper car once every five years, the cost of about 20 types of meat products, and so on.

The minimum wage in developed market countries ranges from 40% to 50% of the average wage. Today its value, in particular, c. US is $5.15 per hour

As a result of the fact that in Ukraine the minimum wage is much lower than the subsistence level, the vast majority of the population is below the poverty line. Thus, according to estimates for the period 1996-1999, 50% of the population were classified as poor, 10% - at risk of becoming poor; 30% - to those with average incomes, and the remaining 10% - to the prosperous.

The low level of wages has an extremely negative impact on economic development, it does not allow the normal reproduction of the labor force in Ukraine, there was a sharp gap between the cost of labor or wages, which causes the reproduction of the labor force on a narrowed basis. The forms of manifestation of this phenomenon are the reduction in the average life expectancy of the population, the deterioration of the health of the nation, the decline in the educational and qualification level of workers, and the growth of the army of the unemployed. Naturally, low wages reduce aggregate demand and hinder the growth of production. Any savings on wages is unfavorable for economic development, since it limits the possibilities of the human factor of production.

employment policy. A distinctive feature of the market system is the underemployment of the population, in other words, it is characterized by permanent unemployment. Therefore, the governments of market countries pay special attention to the policy of ensuring full employment, or rather, maintaining its optimal level. A certain number of unemployed, or a reserve army of labor, is a necessary condition for expanded reproduction.

Under the conditions of a market economy, the policy of full employment includes a system of measures of state regulation of the labor market, ensuring the optimal balance of supply and demand on it in order to increase the efficiency of the functioning of the economy. In the post-war years, employment policy in Western countries took into account the interdependence of the level of employment and wages, which consisted in the short term. She proceeded from the fact that a decrease in employment, and hence an increase in unemployment, causes a decrease in wages and undermines social stability. Therefore, during economic downturns and crises. High and the level of wages is maintained artificially, which further provokes inflation. Often it offsets the nominal increase in wages. Governments constantly have to maneuver between the level of employment and the level of prices. Meanwhile, the economic growth that had been observed for a long time in the post-war period was provided by c. Western. Europe is almost full employment, but now the situation has changed. The number of unemployed there has increased significantly, which is also associated with anti-inflationary politics.

Ensuring full employment is determined by a theoretical understanding of the causes of unemployment. J. Keynes and his followers explain these reasons by the lag of the effective demand of the population from the supply of consumer goods, since with an increase in income the marginal propensity to save grows, and entrepreneurs do not invest enough in production, and therefore do not increase the demand for additional labor. K. Marx defined this phenomenon as an over-accumulation of money capital, which is caused by a discrepancy between the consumer and productive forces of society, which is a form of manifestation of internal contradictions between capital accumulation and capital.

Taking into account all the causes of unemployment, contemporary politics full employment is aimed at increasing the aggregate demand of the population. She recommends not to be afraid of moderate inflation, to reduce taxes during the crisis, to increase the volume of social payments at certain phases of the economic cycle, to increase additional demand for labor by stimulating investment by reducing income taxes, making loans cheaper, to increase the volume of government orders to private capital and in.

Structural unemployment is proposed to be eliminated through the differentiation of wages depending on the shortage of professions, the creation of a flexible system of education and retraining of personnel. Today it is very necessary to provide the labor force with more complete and timely information about available vacancies, to improve the training and retraining of the unemployed through the improvement of the work of labor exchanges. Government policy also seeks to increase labor mobility by paying for transportation costs, providing subsidies to families who move to a new place of work. Also, attention is paid to the construction of enterprises in regions with high unemployment. Given the high unemployment rate among young people, the welfare state is introducing programs to pay certain funds to firms that enroll high school graduates in their staff. New forms of work organization have spread, which create conditions for working at home, part-time employment, stimulating small businesses, and so on.

Despite the fact that the problem of unemployment is very complex, the modern social policy of developed countries as a whole successfully solves it, creating conditions for providing the population with jobs. A socially oriented economy does not leave the unemployed alone with their life problems, but protects them. Social protection of the unemployed is carried out in the form of unemployment insurance, for which special insurance funds are created. The amount of payments depends on such factors: duration of unemployment; work experience; the timing of the assistance; employment period. Hide the amount of unemployment benefits. Yes, in In Sweden, it is 90-45% of previous earnings, but a small number of people receive the minimum amount of benefits. The payment period ranges from 300 days for those under 55 years of age to 450 days for older people. V. US unemployment benefits equal to 50% of earnings for 26-34 weeks. Germany - 68% earnings during the year, and then 58% with no time limit.

Retraining and employment programs. Many value in the social protection of the population of the program of employment and retraining. In many developed market countries, there are systems of worlds that facilitate employment. In Sweden, educational programs cover up to 5% of the workforce. An active policy of quality training and retraining of workers explains the high level of employment in this country. There, a person undergoing training in an educational program is not registered as unemployed. And in the long term, raising the level of education and qualifications gives prospects for employment in the future.

recent decades in Western countries have spread the program of the so-called subsidized or incentive training. They lie in the fact that in the case of hiring certain categories of labor force ((primarily young people and chronically unemployed), the state compensates to a certain extent the costs of training and wages for firms. For example, in France, in the case of hiring a graduate high school firms are compensated to the artists for their production training from. 3% to 100% of the minimum wage for a period of 6 to 12 months. In the Netherlands, if a firm hires an unemployed high school graduate, he is paid £60 a week to cover the cost of his education. There are similar programs in other developed countries.

So, the welfare state is actively involved in the regulation of the labor market. At the same time, in the policy of regulating the labor market, there are differences between Western European countries and. USA and. Japan. It is believed that in Europe has long adopted laws and regulations that are overly rigid and need to be liberalized. V. USA and in. Japan, on the contrary, should strengthen and maintain the system of protection of workers from unreasonable illennen.

In modern conditions, employment policy is increasingly intertwined with policy in the field of general and vocational education. A significant part of the personnel of firms today faces a dilemma: either be a zag. İnönü with younger and more educated workers, or improve their skills through continuous learning. Of course, the second alternative is more promising and profitable.

State policy on the labor market in the transitional economy of Ukraine The labor market, born in Ukraine, and employment problems have trends and problems in common with developed market countries. However, it also has its own specifics, in particular the lack of specialists in the field of employment management in market conditions. Many enterprises and organizations lack specialists in the field of control, reporting, planning and organization, because the country lacks a unified public policy training of specialists of this level. The economy needs not just workers with higher education, but such specialists who continuously improve their professional level.

Labor force policy should pay more attention to job creation programs with a clear anti-crisis focus. To do this, enterprises must pursue a policy of "offensive" competition ntopromost requiring High Quality goods and services, which in turn is due to the high level of education and skills of the workforce. So, we see how much persistent efforts are needed today to improve the skills of the workforce.

Social protection in the field of employment requires the creation of additional jobs. An example would again be the problem's solution to. USA. In the 70-80s of the XX century, 31 million slaves were created here, while in those taken. Great Britain,. Italy,. Germany and. France by largest combined population total number jobs have hardly changed.

The transition to the market in Ukraine is accompanied by the closure of many industrial enterprises, especially in the field. VPK. A significant part of the laid-off workers could find work in the service sector, because this industry is developing rapidly and the creation of one job in it requires 2-3 times less funds.

Small business is a great source of employment. Only at his expense. The US has created more than half of the jobs. However, small business refers to risky entrepreneurship. Yes, in The US annually declares about 10% of small businesses going bankrupt. Japan, where the state actively supports small businesses, the number of bankruptcies does not exceed 1%. The Ukrainian government is also faced with the task of developing a comprehensive program for the development of this area of ​​activity.

It should be noted that in Ukraine, tension in the labor market did not arise immediately after the announcement of the market rate. At first, the situation in this area was not so acute as to attract increased attention to the agu. But since 1995, there has been a clear trend towards job cuts. During the twelve years of the reform, we managed to make sure that the solution to this problem is very difficult. An experience. Mechchina shows that even such a measure as the purposeful allocation of large funds to create new jobs does not give tangible results and is generally ineffective. The main means of combating unemployment is to create conditions for economic growth. in employment policy. The government of Ukraine should shift the priorities of social protection and job retention to productive employment. According to the probable variant of Ukraine's economic development for the coming years, it is assumed that the employment rate in 2005 will be 63.95% against 62.54% in 2000, and the real unemployment rate corresponds to 11.35% and 11.64%11.64%.

The CUJA experience and. European. The Union over the past decades shows that intellectual capital and investment in research and development work are becoming no less, but a more important factor in economic development than capital and labor. Therefore, public employment policy must be aware that investment in research and development design work have a high return and their efficiency increases if the state participates in these expenditures, and not just the private sector.

So, to summarize: Ukraine must finally create a new employment model aimed at creating a developed and social labor market, and the main directions of the state employment policy are

a high level of employment should be created not through artificial barriers that prevent the dismissal of workers and an increase in economic activity, but by organizing new jobs;

Convergence of wages and the necessary costs for the reproduction of the labor force on the basis of business stimulating mechanisms for the distribution of surplus value;

Significant expansion of the social economy sector, which includes non-profit enterprises and organizations that produce goods and services without focusing on increasing profits;

Encouraging the development of flexible forms of employment (voluntary part-time employment, secondary employment, etc.);

Creation of public works with wages that ensure the reproduction of the labor force;

Creation of conditions for the development of small business and self-employment (simplified registration, interest-free loans, legal and advisory support, reduction of tax pressure, etc.)

Covers fundamentally the main directions in the development of society. At the same time, the challenges faced by various industries are being addressed. public life specific tasks. In this regard, there is a defense and environmental, internal and external, cultural and national, economic and social policy of the state. There is also a sphere related to the issues of the political system. Specialists often also use fractional division, especially considering the technical, agrarian, demographic and other political sectors.

Due to the fact that all aspects and areas of society are closely interconnected, the above directions also interact. This frequent interpenetration and interweaving also determines a rather conditional distinction.

However, there is a sphere that is closest to the totality of human interests and needs. This area is addressed to the social life of the population - the social policy of the state.

This definition should be understood as the activities of the state apparatus, charitable foundations, public organizations aimed at meeting the interests and needs of citizens.

For a number of reasons, at the initial stage of radical economic reforms in Russia, the main emphasis was placed on the financial recovery of the economy and macroeconomic stabilization. The social sphere and its problems were relegated to the background. As a result, the population of Russia faced a sharp drop in living standards against the backdrop of increased social differentiation of society, including wages. The situation on the labor market has become aggravated, the demographic situation has worsened, an absolute reduction in the country's population has begun, and life expectancy has decreased Kulikov V.V. Social policy as a priority and priorities of social policy / V.V. Kulikov, V.D. Roik // Russian Economic Journal. - 2010. - No. 1. - With. 3-17.

From the foregoing, we can conclude that Russia needs to pursue a social policy aimed at achieving rational level consumption for the majority of the population, creation of conditions for qualified creative work, formation effective system social protection. The state should be the guarantor of the functioning of institutions social sphere, preservation and development of systems of social protection of the population.

There are six main areas of social policy:

1. policy in the field of improving housing conditions;

2. policy in the field of pension provision regulation;

3. health policy;

4. policy in the field of education.

5. policy in the field of regulating the level of unemployment and employment;

6. policy in the field of regulation of incomes of the population.

In the social policy of the state, an integral part is the income policy, which is designed to reduce the gap in the incomes of various categories of the population, without undermining the interest in work, including entrepreneurial activity.

The next component of the activity of the state is connected with support at the level of at least a living wage for those who could not provide for themselves better life and a reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line. Otherwise, the growth in the number of poor people is fraught with social explosions and instability in the life of society. Reducing the number of poor people is one of the main tasks of the state's social policy.

It should also be noted that differences in the level of consumption may also depend on factors that are not related to the properties of labor and its quality in the worker himself. These factors include: family size, the ratio of the number of employees and dependents in the family, health status, geographical and climatic conditions, etc. The function of the state's redistribution of GDP is to reduce these differences and provide more favorable conditions for material life for all members of society. The form of realization of this goal is the distribution of products and services, transfer payments, as well as government programs to stabilize incomes. State income stabilization programs take place in different countries, but the order of their formation is different.

One part of the funds of such programs is formed through the state budget and is used centrally. Another part of the funds is formed from the profits of enterprises and various funds.

Through the channels of state assistance programs, the needs for the education of new members of society, the maintenance of the elderly and the disabled, the provision of education, and the preservation of health are met.

The distribution of funds under the assistance programs is carried out in three directions.

The first direction is characterized by the fact that part of the income received by the population depends on labor.

The second direction is determined by the fact that the payments made are not related to the work of the employee, but the size of the needs for the satisfaction of which these payments are directed is taken into account. These payments cover child allowances for workers with many children, single mothers, for specialized treatment, state subsidies for the maintenance of children in children's institutions, in boarding schools. The amount of such a subsidy depends on the number of children and the level of income of the parents.

The peculiarity of the third direction is that the main part of them, acting in the form of benefits and services, goes to the population in natural form through the relevant institutions of the non-productive sphere. This part of the distributed funds forms a kind of additional income: they do not go through the family budget.

Such incomes are distributed without taking into account the measure of labor and are entirely determined by the interests and possibilities of society.

Aid payments are designed to mitigate income disparities not due to labor differences but to causes outside the labor process itself. They also contribute to the satisfaction of a number of needs, the most important from the point of view of the tasks of forming the ability to work, developing the individual, achieving a general educational and cultural level, affordable health care, and pensions.

The social policy of the state also includes the harmonization of relations between participants in the market economy in the form of social partnership. The tool for such interaction is tripartite commissions with the participation of the government, employers and trade unions. These commissions annually conclude agreements regulating the dynamics of wages and certain social benefits.

Social partnership agreements regulate the activities of employers (timely payment and indexation of wages,

creation of new jobs, etc.) and employees (compliance with technological discipline, etc.).

However, excessive state intervention in redistribution processes, equalization of incomes leads, on the one hand, to a decrease business activity in society and reduce the efficiency of production in general. On the other hand, a reduction in the role of the state in regulating the incomes of the population leads to an increase in income differentiation, social tension, aggravation social conflicts and, as a result, to a drop in production, a decrease in its efficiency. Achieving optimal scale is associated with resolving the contradiction between efficiency and social justice. The conflict between efficiency and social justice lies in the economic and spiritual spheres of human life.

2.2 Problems of social policy in Russia and ways to solve them

As a result of the reforms, the social and labor sphere has acquired a new quality. Institutional innovations have influenced, firstly, the emergence of fundamentally new areas and types of activities and, secondly, the formation of a new structure of possible sources of income. The most radical was the legal surreal design of the institution of private property, which resulted in:

formation and development of a new sector of the economy and, accordingly, the creation of new jobs;

the formation of a new source of income - entrepreneurial and property income in its most diverse forms.

The plurality of forms of labor activity, especially the development of individual labor activity led to an increase in self-employment. In connection with the liberalization of the customs policy and rules of trade, the so-called "shuttle" business has received the greatest scope. The removal of restrictions on secondary employment has also expanded the range of income sources.

The policy of artificially maintaining the current level of employment or slow growth of unemployment, carried out on the basis of the use of preferential credit regimes and subsidies for unprofitable industries, inevitably leads to the emergence and reproduction of high latent unemployment. In Russia, its two forms are most widespread: the sending of workers on forced unpaid (or partially paid) leave and the use of various part-time work regimes.

The existence of large hidden unemployment is due to a conscious choice at the macroeconomic level. The negative economic and social consequences of this phenomenon are well known: the conservation of a large number of inefficient jobs, the decline in real incomes of the formally employed population, the weakening of incentives for highly productive work, and so on. However, from the point of view of the specific functions of the government, this achieves another, less obvious effect: if, under current legislation, the registered unemployed become the object of social protection, then as a result of the choice made, several million people who are formally employed, but deprived of a permanent source of labor income, find themselves outside the system. social assistance and, in principle, are not the object of state social policy.

The dependence of the employment sector on the macroeconomic situation and changes in the structure of production in a market-type economy determines the subordinate position of labor market policy in relation to the policy of financial and economic structures of the Russian government. His social "block" (including the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, Federal Service employment, federal migration service etc.) practically does not have the ability to directly influence the scale of employment and unemployment. Its prerogatives include only normative support and operational regulation of specific processes in the labor market.

The change in the economic situation in the country necessitated the creation of legal foundations. Regulating the behavior of all economic entities in the labor market. Despite the fact that the Law on Employment is the first legal act, the norms of which are basically adequate to the emerging market relations, some of its articles and the implementation mechanism have led to a number of social problems. The social and economic situation of today's unemployed is extremely contradictory. The norms of social protection of the unemployed introduced by the Law on Employment are at first glance quite liberal: the minimum length of service sufficient to receive benefits is only 12 weeks for the previous year, the amount of unemployment benefits is guaranteed not lower than the minimum wage, are sufficiently defined high thresholds benefit scales. However, with the current inflationary dynamics, the real content of these payments is rapidly depreciating and the benefits are not able to effectively fulfill the function of maintaining the income of the unemployed at an acceptable level, which nullifies the efforts to provide social protection to this category of people.

Worst of all is the situation of people who have not been working for a long time. At present, there is no clear legislation regarding those persons who, after 12 or 15 months, are neither employed nor eligible for benefits. At the same time, there is a pronounced upward trend in the average duration of unemployment. The lack of development of this range of issues, in essence, means that it forces the state to pay significant additional funds to help the unemployed, but also by the fact that it irreversibly changes the quality of the labor force (loss of qualifications and labor skills).

Registration and registration of the unemployed in the bodies of the Social Security Fund is today its main function, which, despite its importance, cannot be considered as an instrument of active labor market policy. The Social Security Fund has developed a number of measures contained in the annual programs to promote employment of the population. However, both the range of these measures and their effect are limited. For example, the idea of ​​maintaining or creating jobs is nothing more than a declaration if it contradicts the ongoing structural policy and the emerging economic environment. The Employment Fund is not able to support small and medium-sized businesses if there are no necessary economic conditions in a particular region. The system of vocational training and retraining of workers cannot be effective, if only because it does not focus on the needs of modern production. At present, the processes taking place in the labor market are spontaneous, unorganized, and the real impact of the social protection fund on them is minimal. From the point of view of stabilizing the labor market, special hopes were placed on the implementation of the idea of ​​social partnership and the regulation of employment on the basis of collective and individual labor contracts. The first experience in this direction was the General Agreement for 1992, concluded between the government of the Russian Federation, the Russian association of trade unions and associations of entrepreneurs, which reflected the main directions for promoting employment and developing the labor market. Under the conditions of mass release, tariff agreements provide for a number of guarantees for them: referral for retraining or mastering another profession with a break from work with the payment of the difference between the scholarship and the average salary at the place latest work; protection of the interests of workers during the period of mass layoffs by public organizations (trade unions); the priority right of an employee temporarily transferred to another enterprise to be reinstated in his previous position upon completion of reconstruction, and so on.

The formation of a market economy in Russia is impossible without an effective social policy. Social policy in the period of transition to a market economy should be based on three main principles: the priority of the problems of social security of the population; increasing the role of personal labor income in meeting the socio-cultural and everyday needs of the population and the elimination of dependency on this basis; organization of a new mechanism for financing the social sphere, i.е. transition from state paternalism to social partnership.

Social security of the population in the transition to a market requires the differentiation of social support in terms of income, degree of ability to work, and in some cases - according to the principle of employment in social production. Some segments of the population need special social programs.

Funding for social programs is carried out not only through public funds but also at the expense of local budgets, funds of enterprises, organizations, and the population. Charitable foundations for social assistance can play a certain role in the social protection of the population. The policy of social protection of the population in the conditions of transition to the market includes a system of social insurance and public assistance.

In modern conditions, the problems of unemployment and inflation have acquired a special side. Social protection against unemployment is realized through training of personnel, organization of a fund to help the unemployed with the establishment of the amount of benefits. Protection against rising inflation, which significantly reduces the standard of living of the population, is indexation reaching, i.e. an increase in their nominal value to prevent a decrease in their real level.

Indexation is carried out by regulating nominal wages, incomes, interest rates. Indexation may follow or precede a price increase. In the first case, it is carried out at certain intervals. In the second, salary increases are made in advance, taking into account the expected price increase. However, preliminary indexation encourages enterprises to factor wage growth into contract prices, thereby aggravating inflation.

So, the results of the current social policy are very contradictory, there are significant shifts in payments to the population, but nevertheless, the level of poverty in the country indicates its low efficiency.