Odesa region enterprises outperform Kyiv in terms of wage arrears

The number of proceedings on wage arrears in 2025 in Odesa region reached 530.

According to the analysts of the Opendatabot platform, Odesa region is tied for fifth place with Rivne region, which has the same number of proceedings.

Mykolaiv region had 33 such proceedings last year, and Kherson region had none. For comparison, 437 proceedings on non-payment of wages were registered in Kyiv, and 73 in Kyiv region.

More than a third of all proceedings opened last year were in the Dnipropetrovs'k region - 3.2 thousand cases. Businesses from Ivano-Frankivsk (1.1 thousand), Sumy (897), and Lviv (770) regions follow the negative example by a significant margin. At the same time, only 1 case was recorded in Luhansk region, 4 more in Chernivtsi region, and 12 proceedings on wage arrears in Volyn.

Mostly, the money is withheld by private companies: 62% of all debts in 2025. Another quarter of cases involve utility companies and more than 13% involve state-owned companies. Most often, limited liability companies, municipal and joint-stock companies are involved.

Overall, last year, Ukrainian companies set an anti-record, according to Opendatabot: 9,174 proceedings on wage arrears against 488 companies. This is 30% more than in 2024 and the highest figure in the last five years. 56% of the wage arrears proceedings initiated last year have not yet been settled.

Cases where employees have been unable to collect their wages for a long time are not uncommon. The oldest proceeding found in the register of debtors at the time of writing stretches back to 2017, where the state-owned enterprise Poliskgeodeskartografiya owes money to its employees. It should be noted that this company is currently in a state of liquidation. In total, almost two thousand active cases were opened in 2017.

Companies producing chemical products were the most likely to fail to pay their employees last year: more than 2,600 proceedings, or 29% of all. Electricity and gas supply companies also owed almost as much (27%).

Кирило Бойко