Farm workers earn half a million tenge a month

Many are probably wondering how much an agronomist, a tractor driver and a shepherd earn in Kazakhstan. The week before last, the Bureau of National Statistics published the results of its annual survey of salaries for selected professions from all segments of the economy. World of NAN prepared a feature showing the incomes of agricultural workers. And whether that income is large or paltry, you can judge for yourself.

It should be noted that the study was conducted in April 2022. Therefore, the data is pertinent as of April 2022.

As a whole the median nominal salary before taxes and pensions in our country was a little more than 204 thousand tenge. Most people (32.6%) earn from 105 to 205 thousand. And the share of those who earn more than 420 thousand tenge ($893) is only 14.3%. In other words, the salary of the remaining 85.7% of Kazakhstani wage earners do not reach even $900.

The study takes into account the data of 2.98 million people, which is over two times less than the number of hired workers. Nevertheless, according to our analyst, the sample is in any case large enough to reflect reality.

In agriculture, the situation is as follows. The average salary was 168 thousand tenge, which is 24% higher than last year. Most of all in agriculture is represented by tractor-machine operators, whose salary amounted to 169 thousand tenge. Among top-20 (41% of all) most popular specialists in agriculture chief agronomists earn the most - 409 thousand tenge per month.

Well, among all employees of the agricultural sector agrochemists and general directors earn the most. Their salary is approximately 570 thousand tenge. Last year agrochemists earned only 100 thousand tenge. Therefore, in our opinion, some of the statistics should be taken with skepticism.

Also, you need to understand one peculiarity of statistical data - the smaller the number of specialists taken into account, the higher the probability that their salaries may be shifted up. For example, according to the Bureau, financiers in agribusiness receive 455 thousand tenge, but these specialists count only 15 in the study. Therefore, they on average earn a little more than 71 financial directors.

There are statistical indicators of salaries by gender of employees. On average, men in agriculture earn 7% more than women. Among popular occupations, the largest difference in favor of men is in shepherds (91% difference), agronomists (72%) and chief agronomists (56%). Women earn the most in the specialty "chief zootechnician", with a salary of 557 thousand. However, this figure is much higher than the average, so we do not exclude that it is only about one woman.

You can look at the data yourself. We've put together two tables with salaries for the most popular agricultural occupations and the occupations that pay the most.