The differences in the education payoff reflect the depth of economical reforms in a country and the institutional specifics of the labor market. The last decade saw major changes in the social policy in transitional economy countries, but certain labor market phenomena (for instance, the decrease of the education payoff) are still puzzling for both politicians and experts. We study the changes in the education payoff in from the late 90-s to the early 2000-s. We use the results of household surveys in nine transitional economy countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Tadjikistan.