ABSTRACT
In 1990, the level of Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Poland and Ukraine was very close to each other and (according to the World Bank) oscillated around 9.5-10.0 thousand USD. Considering the dynamics of economic growth of the Ukrainian oblasts, it turns out that the oblasts of northern Ukraine are developing faster than the other groups of oblasts. Foreign gravitational effects from Russia mainly affect Kyiv and the regions of eastern, northern and central Ukraine, while foreign gravitational effects from Poland exert an influence on the regions of western Ukraine. Hence, the spatial diversity of wages, both in Poland and in Ukraine, is largely determined by the spatial differentiation of labor productivity as well as by the spatial differentiation of unemployment rates. In Poland, the differentiation of wages is much more strongly affected by the differentiation of unemployment rates than the differentiation in labor productivity, while in Ukraine the impact of these variables on wages is similar.
