Fairer income distribution underlined

Development and reform must continue to realize common prosperity: experts

To realize the goal of common prosperity, current policies such as boosting employment and deepening reform of income distribution must continue, experts said.

The annual Central Economic Work Conference held in December once again highlighted common prosperity as one of the priorities for China's economic policies in 2022. Concerning its implementation, the conference specifically required officials at all levels to rightly recognize and handle the strategic goals of common prosperity and the paths of realizing it.

A key path should be to reduce the income gap and raise people's income in general, said Li Shi, a professor and dean of the China Institution for Income Distribution, Beijing Normal University, adding that a prerequisite for that is the nation's flourishing economy.

With stable economic growth, the whole cake will become bigger and more jobs created, thus granting the laborers a bigger say in labor negotiations and raising their wages, Li said.

In 2021, China's average annual income for wage earners reached 19,629 yuan ($3,100), 9.6 percent higher than that of 2020.

A side effect would be widening income gaps as those with more wealth could earn higher profits, Li said, adding that's where government policies need to take effect.

In the 2021 Government Work Report, raising the income of low-income groups and enlarging middle-income groups was listed as a key job.

Li looks forward to the policy continuing in the coming two sessions, the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

High quality employment, which features higher pay, should be the key issue of increasing wages, said Qu Xiaobo, a professor at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"By taking jobs, people are not only taking their share from the cake of national economy, but also making the cake bigger because their labor creates wealth," he said.

Qu said it is necessary to enlarge the group that earns high and middle wages to shrink social income gaps, because "those earning high and middle wages are actually the main members of the middle-income group of the society".

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of people in flexible employment, an important part of the job market, exceeded 200 million last year, according to Chang Kai, a professor of labor law at Renmin University of China.

He added that the flexible employment sector needs more regulatory measures, such as recognizing the fast food deliverymen as laborers and better protecting their rights.

Hou Erhe, a delegate of the NPC as well as Party chief of Baisha village, Wuan city, Hebei province, has been working toward common prosperity of the village for years.

"We opened factories and expanded employment, so that not a single person falls behind in the path toward common prosperity," Hou said in a recent interview with China Central Television.

Before the opening of the two sessions in 2021, China National Democratic Construction Association, one of China's eight non-communist parties, released a report saying that about 60 percent of domestic deliverymen were without social security.

In June 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security together with seven other departments co-issued a guiding document that requires platforms to provide industrial injury insurance for workers, which is part of a greater effort of including them in the social security net.

"Employment is part of the greater issue of labor," Chang said.

"Labor rights protection and laborers' social security must all be strengthened to boost employment, which in turn opens the path wider toward common prosperity."

He was echoed by Ge Huayong, a CPPCC National Committee member, saying in his motion that "common prosperity does not mean equal distribution of the current wealth, but making a bigger cake", according to a report on nbd.com.cn.

Ge called for higher pay for science researchers and grassroots employees to encourage them to get rich via labor.

After income, the redistribution of tax and distribution of charity must also be strengthened to promote common prosperity, Li said.

Zhang Zhanbin, a CPPCC National Committee member and dean of the School of Marxism, National Academy of Governance, said in an interview with China Economic Times that the key to common prosperity lies in reducing residential income gaps and forming a more rational income distribution mechanism.

"Be confident," Li stressed. "The cake is being made bigger and we will ultimately find a way of dividing it more equally. Common prosperity will be realized and it is only a matter of time."