More than 36.6 thousand wage arrears were recorded at the beginning of 2026, according to the Unified Register of Debtors. The number of debts increased by 6% over the year. Almost 2 thousand cases date back to 2017. A record 9.1 thousand proceedings on wage arrears were opened last year. This is 30% more than in 2024. More than a quarter of the debts are owed by companies operating in the chemicals industry. Dnipropetrovs’k region is among the anti-leaders with more than a third of all wage arrears.
As of the beginning of 2026, there were 36,629 active proceedings for non-payment of wages in Ukraine. Over the year, the number of wages not paid on time increased by 6%.
Overall, Ukrainian companies set an anti-record last year: 9,174 proceedings on wage arrears against 488 companies. This is 30% more than in 2024 and the highest figure in the last 5 years.
56% of the wage arrears proceedings initiated last year have not yet been settled.
Cases where employees have been unable to get their money for a long time are not uncommon. Among these cases, there are outright “long-lived” ones. The oldest proceeding found in the register of debtors at the time of writing stretches back to 2017 – 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 owe almost as much (27%).
More than a third of all proceedings opened last year were in Dnipropetrovs’k region – 3.2 thousand cases. Businesses from Ivano-Frankivsk (1,100), 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.
The absolute leader in the number of wage arrears was the utility company Teplocomunenergo of the Oleksandriya City Council, against which 1,446 cases were opened in 2025. This is followed by Karpatnaftochim (1,059), Dniproazot (630), Svitlovodskpobut (491), and Odesa Port Plant (469). Some companies were able to close most of their cases by the end of the year, while hundreds of proceedings remained active.
Several companies included in the Opendatabot 2025 Index also had arrears. Recovery of unpaid salaries was found in relation to Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrnafta, Ukrtransgaz, the network of laboratories Esculab, the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, and DTEK Pavlohradvuhillya. In most cases, the companies closed their debts by the end of the year.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/salary-debts-2025-12
