A district official in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia will try to subsist on the minimum monthly salary of 6,400 rubles ($210) in an attempt to shame local businesses into raising salaries.
Dmitry Zhertovsky, who oversees the economy in the administration of Tbilissky district, is launching the experiment next Monday because he ran out of arguments for district businesses and organizations, the district administration said on its website.
Travel and clothing expenses are not included, but Zhertovsky will still only have 2,190 rubles, or 73 rubles a day, for groceries after paying his bills and taxes, the report said. He already purchased a cheap razor and shaving brush.
Zhertovsky, 28, an economist by education, has drafted a day-to-day plan on how to survive on the meager sum, local television Channel Nine said. His wife will document his breakfasts and dinners on camera to prevent cheating, and he will report his progress on Twitter.
The official, who did not disclose his regular salary, said he has some experience with dieting because he observed religious fasting in the past, but still expects his health to worsen.
Only 43 percent of companies and organizations in the district raised wages from the minimal allowed level in 2011. Zhertovsky said they may be dodging taxation through paying part of salaries under the table.
This is not the first experiment of its kind: in 2011, a teenager in Sverdlovsk region in the Urals spent a month on the state-approved minimum food basket, valued at 2,632 rubles at the time. He reported losing 2.5 kilograms and developing “serious health problems” over the experiment.
