The article assesses the purchasing power of research staff wages in the regions of the Central Federal District. The article substantiates the limitations of traditional approaches to assessing the standard of living, which are based solely on comparing wages with the cost of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services, given their insufficient account of expenditure items. The relevance of the study stems from the need for an objective assessment of whether the nominal incomes of research staff are sufficient to cover basic expenses. The article develops and tests the methodological approach, which extends the traditional comparison of wages with the cost of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services by adding four scenarios of basic expenses through the additional inclusion of items for rent or housing maintenance, as well as for personal and public transport. This approach makes it possible to assess how much purchasing power changes when the range of a researcher's expenses taken into account is expanded. On the basis of the proposed methodology, it is found that accounting for additional housing and transport expenses substantially affects purchasing power in the regions of the Central Federal District and makes it possible to assess the material situation of researchers more accurately.