The YCL is particularly concerned with issues specific to young people such as the inequalities between the minimum wage categories and student tuition fees.

Access to paid sick leave benefits ranged from 21 percent for the lowest wage category to 87 percent for the highest wage category.

Professor Kasarda argues that the genius of the ever changing American economy has been its ability to move workers, including those in the lowest wage categories, to where new jobs were being created.

According to a 1996 report, 87 percent of employed urban Russians earning less than 100,000 rubles a month were women, and the percentage of women decreased consistently in the higher wage categories.

But those who want to remain in a traditional indemnity health program will make payments based on wage categories, an average of $46 a month for single workers and $105 for family plans, state officials said.

Existing in the low wage category, with a new baby, and a recent redundancy, I feel I have an idea of how the majority of the country's citizens would react to this suggestion.