Salary debts reached a five-year high: Ukrainian companies set a record

In 2025, Ukraine recorded a record number of proceedings regarding salary arrears for the past five years. 9,174 cases were opened against 488 companies, which is 30% more than in 2024. Such data is contained in a study by the Opendatabot service.

Analysts note that the situation with debt repayment remains difficult. As of today, 56% of proceedings opened last year due to unpaid salaries have not yet been closed. This indicates systemic financial problems of some employers and the protracted nature of settlements with employees.

Most often, in 2025, wage payments were delayed by chemical industry enterprises. Companies producing chemical products accounted for more than 2.6 thousand proceedings, or 29% of the total. An almost similar situation was observed in the electricity and gas supply sector, where 27% of all debts were recorded.

The regional distribution also demonstrates significant disparities. More than a third of all proceedings opened in 2025 fell on the Dnipropetrovsk region - about 3.2 thousand cases. Significantly smaller, but still noticeable figures were recorded in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (1.1 thousand), Sumy region (897) and Lviv region (770).

At the same time, in a number of regions the number of such cases was minimal. In Luhansk region, only one case of salary arrears was recorded, in Chernivtsi region - four, and in Volyn 12 relevant proceedings were opened.

The study shows that the main share of debts falls on the private sector. In 2025, private companies formed 62% of all recorded salary arrears. Another quarter of the cases concerned municipal enterprises, and over 13% were state-owned. Limited liability companies, municipal and joint-stock enterprises are most often involved in the proceedings.

The absolute leader in the number of cases of unpaid wages was the municipal enterprise "Teplokomunenergo" of the Oleksandria City Council. 1,446 proceedings were opened against it in 2025. Next in the list of the largest debtors are "Karpatnaftokhim" (1,059 cases), "Dniproazot" (630), "Svitlovodskpobyt" (491) and Odessa Port Plant (469).

Analysts note that some companies managed to close most of the cases of wage debts by the end of the year. At the same time, hundreds of proceedings remained active in a number of enterprises, which emphasizes the scale of the problem and its long-term nature for the Ukrainian labor market.