Shanghai tops all other cities on the Chinese mainland in terms of annual income and employees in Shanghai earned between 20,000 yuan (US$2,900) and 540,000 yuan (US$78,850) a year, according to a study conducted by human resource website Zhaopin between August 2007 and July this year.
Earlier in July this year, Beijing-based Zhaopin had completed a final round of financing and secured US$110 million from two Australian investors, ahead of a planned IPO in 2010. Macquarie Capital invested $60 million to hold 29.1% stake, while online recruitment company Seek increased its current stake from about 25% to near 43% after the addition of $45 million.
China's highest skyscraper, the 492m Shanghai World Financial Center, is 3rd-tallest in the world after Burj Dubai and Taipei 101 and was officially inaugurated on Aug 28
Shenzhen, Beijing and Guangzhou follow Shanghai in China’s urban income ranking, but the difference is not as stark. Annual incomes in Guangzhou, which ranks fourth, range from 18,000 yuan to 420,000 yuan. In second-tier cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing, people earn much less than in the big four.
Employees in the financial sector make the most money, followed by the real estate and high-tech sectors.
Staff at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have seen the sharpest pay rise, by 14.5%, followed by private firms (13.9%), foreign enterprises (11.7%) and joint ventures (11.4%). But people in SOEs and private firms earn “only half” the amount of those working for foreign firms and joint ventures. Salaries in foreign-funded companies and joint ventures are generally the highest in China.
Double-digit pay rises in the first half of this year were largely a result of the fast rising Consumer Price Index (CPI), a gauge of inflation, the survey noted. Pay rises have exceeded the country’s average annual growth rate of 12%, but can hardly offset the impact of rising inflation on many consumers.
On average, company employees in urban areas witnessed a pay rise of 13.8% in the first half of this year, compared with 9.7% in 2007, according to the Zhaopin survey.
The National Bureau of Statistics had reported that China’s urban workers’ per capita salary averaged 12,964 yuan (US$1,878 ) in the first half of this year, up 18% y-o-y. For 2007, the per-capita salary of urbanites was 24,932 yuan or US$3,640.
