Moscow Official Urges Work From Age 12, Reviving Summer Labor Camps Amid 1 Million Worker Gap
Updated
Updated · London Loves Business · Jun 5
Moscow Official Urges Work From Age 12, Reviving Summer Labor Camps Amid 1 Million Worker Gap
3 articles · Updated · London Loves Business · Jun 5
Summary
Olga Yaroslavskaya, Moscow’s children’s rights commissioner, proposed letting children work from age 12 and restoring Soviet-style summer labor camps to ease Russia’s labor shortage.
More than 1 million workers are estimated to be missing as demographic decline, wartime emigration and sanctions tied to the Ukraine war strain the labor market.
Current Russian law allows work from 14 with parental consent and independent contracts from 15, so the idea would push the legal boundary lower if formalized.
Yaroslavskaya cast the plan as popular summer work that gives teenagers structure and income, but the proposal has stirred unease because of its Soviet-era echoes.
The suggestion fits a broader push to link education, labor and patriotic messaging as Russia searches for unconventional fixes to structural workforce pressure.