Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

6. Strengthening social development and ensuring and improving the wellbeing of the people

The more the economy develops, the more attention we need to pay to strengthening social development and ensuring and improving people's wellbeing.

We will do everything in our power to expand employment. We will continue to implement a more proactive employment policy. This year the central government plans to invest 42.3 billion yuan to assist and promote employment. In light of the workforce structure in China, we will energetically develop labor-intensive industries, service industries, small and micro-businesses and innovative high-tech enterprises, and strive to satisfy the employment needs of different groups of people. We will continue to give top priority to the employment of university graduates and key groups. We will strengthen vocational training and encourage people to start their own businesses. We will strengthen public services for employment, and improve the unified, standardized and flexible human resources market. We will more quickly develop job information networks and achieve nationwide connectivity. We will strengthen the supervision and enforcement of labor safeguards, improve mechanisms for resolving labor disputes, safeguard the rights and interests of workers in accordance with the law, and build harmonious labor relations.

We will adjust income distribution in a reasonable manner. This is both a long-term task, and an urgent issue we need to address now. This year we will concentrate on the following three measures.

First, we will focus on increasing the basic incomes of low-income people in both urban and rural areas. We will steadily increase the minimum wage of workers, basic pensions of enterprise retirees, and subsistence allowances for both urban and rural residents. We will establish a sound mechanism of regular pay raises for workers and strictly enforce the minimum wage system.

Second, we will put more effort into adjusting income distribution. We will raise the individual income tax threshold on salaries, reasonably adjust the tax rate structure, and genuinely reduce the tax burden on low- and middle-income people. We will effectively regulate excessively high incomes, strengthen the dual controls on total wages and wage scales in industries in which incomes are excessively high, and strictly standardize the management of executive pay and bonuses in SOEs and financial institutions.

Third, we will vigorously overhaul and standardize income distribution. We will resolutely prohibit illicit income. We will quickly establish a system for monitoring income distribution. Through unremitting efforts, we will reverse the trend of a widening income gap as soon as possible and ensure that the people share more in the fruits of reform and development.