The article performs a comparative analysis of the structural elements of civil servants’ salaries in foreign countries and in the RF. The author studied typical payments of civil servants in the international practice; identified the size and the ratio between the fixed and variable portions of pay.

Analysis of the international practice reveals that the presence of   bonus payments in the structure of remuneration for work results of civil servants is of a great stimulating importance: the bigger and the less secure is the proportion of successful payment, the more civil servants’ work focuses on the fulfillment of the set tasks and goals, the achievement of the performance indicators.

In comparing with the RF civil service payment structure, the author finds that no foreign countries analyzed have such a low share of bonus payment as in the RF: the ratio 86-11-3% (salary and most additional payments, allowance for special conditions of the civil service; award /bonus for especially important and complex tasks) makes it impossible to carry out effective stimulation of state civil servants. The lack of interest of public officials in the performance of their work and very low quality of their work are due to this situation in the payment structure, since the well-done work and formal execution of official duties are awarded equally, the level of bonus remains the same.