May 30, 2012
Translated by Zhu Na

The average annual salary of urban "non-private sector employees" was 42,452 yuan in 2011, the average annual salary of private sector employees was 24,556 yuan, a nominal increase of 14.3 percent and 18.3 percent respectively when compared with the previous year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

However, when higher living expenses were taken into account, urban non-private sector employees real salaries grew by only 8.5 percent in 2011, while those of private sector employees grew by 12.3 percent.

The bureau noted that the wage gap between the private sector and non-private sector is still very large, with private sector employees on average still earning less than 60 percent of what non-private sector employees are being paid.

That said, the way in which the bureau defines a "non-private sector employee" is problematic, with workers at listed companies and foreign-invested companies, including those that are privately owned, classified in this way.

Among the non-private sector employees, those working in the financial sector earned the most, pulling in just over 90,000 yuan a year on average. Those working in IT and scientific research were also more highly paid than other industries.

Whereas those working in "agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries", the accommodation and food industry and "water conservancy, environment and public facility management" only managed annual average salaries of 20,400 yuan, 27,800 yuan and 30,700 yuan respectively.

In terms of private sector employees, those working in IT, scientific research and finance also topped the list, but they were earning much less on average than their non-private colleagues, taking home 35,500 yuan, 31,300 yuan, and 28,600 yuan a year.

The lowest paid workers in the private sector were those who worked in "public administration and social organization" who only earned an average annual income of 11,738 yuan. People working in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries were also down the bottom of the list, earning only 19,223 yuan a year on average.

The data revealed that large income gaps between regions, industries and occupations still exist in China.

The Beijing News spoke to Liu Yuanchun (刘元春), vice dean of the School of Economics at Renmin University, about the data. Mr. Liu said that large income gaps between industries had been a consistent problem over recent years. He also said that the NBS's wage data did not reflect the overall situation as the base salary of some high-income earners only accounted for a small portion of their total income. He said that some corporate executives received income through dividends and returns on share holdings and that such income is often a large proportion of their total income.

Mr. Liu argued that the real income gap was much greater than the data showed.

Mr. Liu also offered an analysis of why the gap between the private sector and non-private sector wages was so large.

The economist said that for non-private sector, most of the firms are large and knowledge-intensive that have more mature labor relations; while for the private sector, most are small and medium sized enterprises, and their labor relations are relatively poor, so naturally the salaries they pay are lower.

Links and Sources
NBS: 专家解读：如何看待2011年平均工资的较快增长
NBS: 2011年城镇私营单位就业人员年平均工资24556元
NBS: 2011年城镇非私营单位在岗职工年平均工资42452元
The Beijing News: 统计局数据显示去年金融信息行业等收入最高