Far North (Russia)

Due to the remoteness and the harsh conditions of the area, since the Soviet times people who work there have traditionally been entitled by the Russian government to higher wages and many other benefits,[2] including earlier retirement age,[3] than workers of other regions.

[5] In 2012, the photoreporter Justin Jin released an award-winning photodocumentary Zone of Absolute Discomfort about gas extraction in Russian Arctic.

People who work there, other than the inmates of labor camps that constituted the Gulag system of the Soviet Union and the inmates of corrective labor colonies in present-day Russia, receive an extra grade of payment, referred to as the "Northern Bonus" (severnye nadbavki Russian: северные надбавки).

Such compensation began under the Soviet Union and has been maintained by the Russian Federation.

[7] In January 2007, the State Duma Committee for Issues of the North and Far East approved a proposed law defining regions within the Far North that would determine the extent of compensation for workers.