Recruiting in China

Thirty-year-old Ye Lei had worked in a state-owned factory in her hometown Jiangxi Province for seven years. Although she had been promoted to the position of the department head, she quit her job last month to work as a sales representative in a marketing company in Beijing.

"The first thing I want from the job hop is a higher salary. Career opportunities come second," Ye said.

Ye had already received a 13-percent pay raise over the year earlier period before she quit the factory. On April 1, Jiangxi Province increased its minimum wage for the eighth time since 1995. Many workers in Ye's factory have benefited from these wage increases.

Currently, in the most economically developed areas of Jiangxi Province, the minimum wage is 1,230 yuan ($196) per month, or 12.3 yuan ($1.96) per hour. Whereas in some less developed areas in the province, the minimum wage is 900 yuan ($143) per month or 9 yuan ($1.43) per hour.

Even with the raise, Ye still felt her income wasn't keeping up with the increasing cost of living. With profits of the factory dwindling and some of her workers leaving for greener pastures in the service sector, it was time for Ye to jump ship as well.

China's fast-growing service industries are luring workers away from the manufacturing sector. Modest hikes in local minimum wage ordinances do little to staunch the flow of personnel, to which the recruitment postings near the gate of Ye's factory can attest.

A report of The Wall Street Journal presents data showing that in the previous five years, the service industry created 37 million new jobs in China, much more than the 29 million created in manufacturing.

Labor shortage for the manufacture sector in China is not seasonal or short-term, said Kelvin Lau, senior economist of Standard Chartered Bank. Competition for labor is expected to drive up wages.

Stories of wage earners

On May 17, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released last year's average annual wage of the workers in urban non-private sectors, which mainly comprises state- and collectively-owned enterprises and public service institutions. The data show that in 2012, workers in those sectors made an average of 46,769 yuan ($7,459), a nominal 11.9-percent increase over that of the previous year. After deducting inflationary factors, the real annual growth rate was 9 percent.

As often, the release of national salary statistics sparked discussions and prompted people to share their income-related stories.

Lu Mengying, a 31-year-old resident in Beijing, is happy about her current income. She was recently hired as sales representative by a company selling luxury goods.

"My base salary and commission usually add to about 8,000 yuan ($1,276) per month. If things go well, I can make more than 10,000 yuan ($1,595)," she said.

Lu had previously earned rather little at a marketing company in Beijing's Zhongguancun area, China's Silicon Valley, where she had worked for six years after she graduated from university.

Promising earnings prospects drew her to the luxury industry. She enrolled in an expensive training program on luxury industry management. The 15-day training program cost her more than one year's income, but Lu found it worthwhile, as it helped her land her current job.

According to Lu, a "buyer" of a product line under a luxury brand in her company can make at least 500,000-700,000 yuan ($79,700-$111,600) a year. The buyer's duty is to run around the world to collect product information, contact suppliers, place orders and procure products to meet the needs of various consumers.

Currently, buyers are in short supply in China. Lu said that because of her limited ability and her 3-year-old child, she doesn't want to become a buyer, at least not right now. She's more confident about working her way back up to management—of a boutique rather than a factory. Few people in China meet the qualifications for store manager, so such individuals are highly sought after by luxury brands.

Lu's optimism is not unsubstantiated. Last year, a number of international brands exploring markets in second- and third-tier Chinese cities discovered significant demand for sales, human resources, training, business development and leasing professionals, according to a 2013 global salary survey by leading recruitment consulting firm Robert Walters.

Although business executives in many industries get fat paychecks, as indicated by the Robert Walters survey, most first-line workers do not.

Twenty-year-old Li Min, from Huainan City in Anhui Province, is a waiter in Shanghai. His parents also work in Shanghai, and they must support Li's two younger brothers.

As much as he'd like to chip in, Li can barely cover his own expenses, and he doesn't expect his 1,000 yuan ($159) monthly earnings to rise anytime soon. He plans to borrow some money from acquaintances and open a car wash.

Liu Guobao, a 43-year-old welder in Shanghai, also barely makes ends meet. His monthly salary increased to 3,800 yuan ($606) last year from 1,800 yuan ($287) in 2006. Yet having to raise two school-age daughters, he has little money to squirrel away.

The National Bureau of Statistics said that, although average wages in 2012 grew quite fast, income levels differed across regions, industries and positions, and the income gap is yawning wider.

Income disparity in China is quite high. Last year, the country's Gini coefficient, a gauge of income inequality, reached 0.474 after four consecutive years' drop from its peak level in 2008. Nonetheless, it shows an alarmingly wide gap between the rich and the poor in China.

"Since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, China has already established an income distribution system suiting its national conditions and development stage. Yet some salient problems still exist in this area," said Zheng Gongcheng, a professor researching social security at Beijing-based Renmin University of China.

Zheng is also a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's legislature. He cited such problems as front-line workers' income is still too low, the income gap between various groups is too big, and some people get "grey" and "black" income.

"Increasing ordinary workers' income is a long-term task in the income distribution reform," Zheng said.

Reform suggestions

Public concern over income disparity has prompted government regulatory measures.

Income distribution reform is not as simple as salary reform, said Su Hainan, Deputy Director of the China Association for Labor Studies. Su said that it should involve reform of taxation, social security, social welfare, and other systems.

On February 5, the State Council approved and published opinions on deepening income distribution reform.

The document says that the government will strive to double the average real income of urban and rural residents by 2020 from the 2010 level and let the poor enjoy faster income growth.

Through the reform, the government also aims to expand the middle-income group, sharply reduce poverty, and adjust and regulate excessively high and hidden income.

The government also seeks to raise the share of residents' income in total national income, and increase government expenditure on social security and employment.

The urban-rural disparity is a major contributor to the income gap in China. Some experts say that the urban-rural income gap can explain more than 40 percent of China's income disparity.

Some experts suggest that to shrink the income gap, the government should reform the household registration system, eliminate discrimination against migrant workers, and give farmers greater pricing power when they transfer their contracted farmland.

Monopoly is also another cause of income inequality. Monopoly industries usually pay well, not because their employees work harder, but because of their monopoly of national resources, said officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Even inside state-owned monopoly industries, income is very unevenly distributed. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Development and Reform Commission once conducted a survey on salaries in dozens of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises in several monopoly industries, such as petroleum, telecommunications, aviation and electric power generation. The survey showed that in these companies, the highest-paid employee takes home five to nearly 100 times as much as the lowest-paid employee.

Zeng Xiangquan, Dean of the School of Labor and Human Resources at the Renmin University of China, advocates breaking up the monopolies to let markets determine executive salaries as a solution for this particular form of income inequality.

In addition, income distribution reform should not only be an "incremental reform" but also a "stock reform," said Zheng. That is to say, previous unequal income distribution, as reflected in unequal distribution of accrued wealth, should also be adjusted.

To bridge the gap between the rich and poor, both income and property should be regulated, Su said.

The State Council's opinions on deepening income distribution reform indicate the government may soon levy property taxes beyond the scope of the current trials in Shanghai and Chongqing. The possibility of a consumption tax was mentioned, and the government is exploring the feasibility of levying an estate tax in the distant future.

Zheng also suggested that on one hand, the reform should address some pressing issues, and on the other hand, it should set up stable systems to accommodate rational public expectations. He said that confidence in the future can alleviate people's uneasiness and anxiety.