“Belarusian style” subsistence wage: Women are to wear one dress for 5 years

The minimum subsistence budget which is calculated by the state, everything is mentioned: how many per cents should different expenses take.

Food takes the lion's share. The minimum subsistence budget (MSB) is not enough even for minimal of products list recommended by the law. In May officials increased the budget, though not much, form 234,000 Br to 234,000 Br, “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus” writes.

“The minimum subsistence budget has grown by 3.9% since May 1, as compared with the MSB in costs of the year 2008. The state allowances to families raising children, social pensions, as well as bonuses and premiums for certain categories of pensioners will rise in the same way too,” Tamara Rak, the head of the department of complex problems of social and labour sphere development noted.

Such a small rise of the MSB is unlikely to help. The sum wasn’t sufficient for buying meat, and additional 5,000 Br won’t help. Belarusians face the problem of buying clothes, food, paying utilities expenses and restoring to health their families at just 104,700 Br a month.

It means that a travel pass should be bought for 15,000 Br. One mode of transportation should be chosen. Paying utilities expenses is tricky too. In the last bill many Belarusians saw a sum about 130,000 Br. When divided in three, the sum given by the government would be enough to pay that. But people are also to pay for phone, electricity, and these expenses are not included to the utility bill. Even adding 970 rubles allocated for payments, the sum of the minimum subsistence budget won’t be enough.

Belarusians can to spend 5,100 Br per month for medicines. Just a few antipyretic powders could be bought, or one pack of cough syrup.

It looks like there were no women in the commission that write the budget. 5,000 Br are allocated for “medicines and personal hygiene products”, that means either medicines or personal hygiene products should be bought. By the way, a pack of sanitary towels costs about 10,000 br. That is twice as much as MSB offers.

According to the new budget, shopping should become a real “holiday” for Belarusians. Most of articles could be bought only once in a few years. Belarusians are offered 480,000 Br for shopping for a year. Belarusian women can buy tights often: 7 pairs a year. However, according to the table created by Belarusian considerate law-makers, Belarusian dwellers have to economize. One bra a year, six pairs of knickers per two years; one pair of winter high boots for 5 years, one pair of autumn bots for 4 years; pair of sandals and summer shoes for a year and a half; ne cotton dress for 2.5 years, and one warm dress for 5 years. You should be very careful wearing that…

Even leaving aside the issue of money, Belarusian norms are not created for ordinary people, but for imaginary ones. It’s next to impossible to live with such a minimum.