MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, approved on Wednesday in the third and final reading a bill that stipulates a 175 percent salary increase for staff at the Investigative Committee.

The bill, which proposes a three-step increase in wages to be implemented between January and October 2013, was filed with the State Duma by the ruling United Russia party in December of last year.

The legislature will now have to be passed by the parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, and signed into law by the president.

Monthly salaries at the Investigative Committee averaged almost 80,000 rubles ($2,600) in 2011, according to the State Statistics Service (Rosstat). The proposed hike would put them at 140,000 rubles ($4,560).

The average monthly salary in Russia stood at 26,400 rubles ($840), according to Rosstat figures from September 2012, or three times lower than average earnings at the Investigative Committee.

The bill also proposes monthly bonuses, ranging from two to five monthly salaries for senior staff at the committee, a Russian law enforcement body that resembles the FBI. The committee had about 78,000 employees as of 2011.