WAGES AND ATTITUDES OF MEDICAL SPECIALISTS TO VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATION AND LABOUR MOBILITY

Abstract

In the health care sector, due to a long cycle of accumulation of human capital, a change of profession often leads to a disruption of this cycle. Therefore, stable employment in the workplace for medical specialists is preferable and should be accompanied by permanent qualification growth within the framework of the profession. Labour mobility to a large extent contradicts this process. One of its most powerful incentives is dissatisfaction with earnings, and this article presents an analysis of the impact of this dissatisfaction on readiness for vocational and labour mobility, based on a questionnaire survey of doctors and nurses of Moscow health care system. A reference group of specialists with proactive attitude towards vocational and professional growth has been singled out. Its assessments of satisfaction with the size of earnings and with correspondence between earnings and labour contribution showed that the dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of earnings is widely spread. This dissatisfaction relates to both base salary and incentive payments against labour contribution. An increase in base salary and in incentive payments together with a simultaneous increase in the share of incentive payments should be the basis for adjusting the wage system. A more accurate accounting of the workload (which has grown as a result of optimization) in earnings is also relevant for paramedical personnel. Should the authorities fail to do this, the undesirable staff turnover, which is already high, may increase even further.