Astana, 23 October. Kazakhstan's Bureau of National Statistics has published its annual survey of pay, showing that employees with postgraduate education earn an average of 802,944 tenge a month and that their earnings rose 19.4% over the year, the fastest of any education group; for young people aged 16–24 the increase was 10.9%, the Telegram channel Politus.KZ reported.
According to the bureau, the average monthly wage in the second quarter of 2026 was 486,388 tenge and the median wage 348,415 tenge. The median splits workers into two equal halves, one earning less and one earning more, so it shows what an "ordinary" person earns more accurately than the average, which a few very high salaries can pull up. The gap between the two figures is almost 138,000 tenge.
The survey shows how pay depends on education. A worker with higher education earns 523,210 tenge on average and one with secondary education 311,169 tenge; postgraduate education (a master's or doctoral degree) adds another 280,000 tenge on top of higher education. The gap by type of ownership is also wide: foreign-owned enterprises pay an average of 748,529 tenge, about one and a half times more than private enterprises (513,076 tenge) and twice as much as state-owned ones (365,476 tenge). The bureau notes that the differences also reflect the sectoral mix of enterprises and the composition of their workforce.
By age, the highest pay goes to workers aged 35–44, at 489,629 tenge, followed by those aged 45–54, at 467,544 tenge. Young people aged 16–24 earn 310,256 tenge, but their pay rose faster than that of any other age group. Average hourly pay rose 7.5% over the year to 2,508 tenge. All amounts are before mandatory deductions, and growth is nominal, not adjusted for inflation; the group data come from a survey of employees who worked the whole of April 2026.
Adjusted for inflation, the picture is more modest: according to a calculation by the Data Hub portal based on the bureau's data, real wages in the second quarter fell 1.8% from the same quarter of 2025, the fourth quarterly decline in a row. Education (385,725 tenge, down 6.5%) and information and communications (851,076 tenge, down 6%) lost the most in real terms.
In nominal terms the average wage rose 8.4% over the year; in terms of what it can buy, it shrank by 1.8%.
What it means: Education and a job at a company with foreign capital remain the surest ways to earn more than average. But pay rises in tenge are not keeping up with prices: the purchasing power of wages has fallen for the fourth quarter running.
Who benefits: Holders of advanced degrees and employees of foreign companies, whose earnings are growing faster and are already well above average. Young workers get the fastest rises, but from the lowest base. Public-sector workers are worst off: average pay at state-owned enterprises is half that at foreign ones, and teachers lost more than others in real terms.
Background: The average wage keeps rising in nominal terms each quarter: in the first quarter of 2026 it was 461,486 tenge. The minimum wage has been 85,000 tenge since 1 January 2026. According to the same survey, men's hourly pay is 2,859 tenge and women's 2,180 tenge.
List of sources used: Politus.KZ, Bureau of National Statistics, Kapital.kz
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
