The income distribution system should be further reformed to prevent employees of monopoly enterprises from enjoying unreasonably higher incomes than their counterparts in other sectors, says a signed article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

An official from China Construction Bank said recently that the average income of its staff was 88,000 yuan (US$10,864) last year, while the figure was 98,000 (US$12,098) and 103,000 (US$12,716) for China Bank of Communications and Bank of China respectively. He said the bank will increase their staff's income by 30 per cent this year.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics in March, the country's urban employees earned an average of 18,405 yuan (US$2,272) in 2005. The average income of China Construction Bank's staff was already 4.78 times that.

The central government has stressed that it will adjust the distribution of incomes, standardize the way income is distributed, and increase the incomes of people in the lower and middle income brackets.

To the reform of the income distribution system, China Construction Bank's 30 per cent increase of emoluments is  a satire. The formerly State-owned bank is still State-controlled despite being listed. The high average income of its staff should have been included in the listing adjustments. But now the bank wants to increase this income, which makes the public worry how the distribution system will be reformed.

Experts have long pointed out that monopolized industries are a hard crux in the reform of the distribution system. It is hard to say that the staffs of such monopoly enterprises have created especially high social value, but their incomes are much higher than the average.

Surely it is unjust to blame China Construction Bank alone, because the income levels of other banks are even higher. This just shows that it is common for staff of administrative monopoly enterprises to have extra-high income levels. What is more, the State has paid thousands of billions of yuan to make up the losses of the banking industry in recent years. There is definitely no reason for the banks' staff to enjoy such high incomes.

If China Construction Bank can materialize its 30 per cent increase in incomes, all monopoly enterprises can find some reason to raise incomes and the State's income distribution reform will fail. Moreover, the increase in their staff's incomes will decrease these enterprises' tax contribution and the State's financial incomes.

It is necessary to curb the monopoly enterprises' impulse to profit in an effort to implement the policies of income distribution reform.