China's urban employees see faster pay rises in 2018

BEIJING -- The average salary of China's urban employees grew faster in 2018 due to better corporate profitability and solid performance of the Chinese economy, official data showed Tuesday.

In non-private sectors, the average salary of urban employees rose by 11 percent to 82,461 yuan (12,061 US dollars). The growth rate was 1 percentage point faster than a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In private sectors, the annual average salary stood at 49,575 yuan, up 8.3 percent year on year which was 1.5 percentage points faster than a year earlier.

The inflation-adjusted real growth rates for non-private and private sectors were 8.7 percent and 6.1 percent respectively.

Meng Canwen, deputy chief of the population and employment statistics bureau, attributed the faster pay rises to a series of measures the country had taken the previous year amid complex situations at home and abroad to stabilize growth, advance reform, adjust structure, benefit the people and ward off economic risks.

The effect of these measure has been unfolding, as the national economy steadily expanded with an overall stable employment situation and rising corporate profitability, which laid a solid foundation for the pay rises, Meng said.

Employees in traditional manufacturing have earned more as the profits of relevant industries improved significantly.

The profit of petroleum and gas extraction more than quadrupled for instance, while that of nonmetal mineral product manufacturing surged by 43 percent. Correspondingly, the average salaries of the two sectors rose by 18.6 percent and 13.6 percent respectively.

Equipment manufacturing also reported drastic rises ranging from 9.3 percent to 14 percent in the average salaries of urban employees.

Thanks to accelerated infrastructure facilities construction, the average salaries of loading and moving as well as warehousing sectors increased by 20.9 percent and 21.9 percent respectively, 11.6 percentage points and 11.9 percentage points faster than a year earlier.

Employees engaging in research, experiment and development, special technical services, technologies promoting and application services have seen their annual income rise by 15.7 percent, 13.2 percent and 15.9 percent on average, respectively.

Nearly half of the country's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions elevated their minimum wage standards last year, which also contributed to the rises in average annual salaries, Meng said.