In this paper, we investigate the impact of informality on earnings inequality in Russia using the RLMS–HSE data for 2000–2010. We apply decompositions based on the recentered influence functions of unconditional quantiles. Our results confirm that informality increases the earnings polarization widening both tails of the distribution. This effect, albeit small, is statistically significant. Changes in structure and wage effects of informality did not have significant contribution to the decline in overall earnings inequality in 2000–2010, except for a group of workers without permanent job.