A newly completed report on salary for 2004 shows two major changes. One makes the SOE employees happy. The salary rise of SOEs has surpassed foreign enterprises for the first time, though the employees actual income fall behind their counterparts in foreign enterprises. Second, the Beijinger's average monthly salary of 3, 764 yuan exceeds that of the Shanghainese for the first time.

The report is completed by the Zhilian.com after analyzing data of more than 2 million resumes in its database. All statistics are from job seekers on the Internet.

The report indicates that ranking of the average monthly salary in different type of enterprise remains the same as previous year. From the top to bottom of ranking are foreign enterprise with average monthly salary of 3, 820 yuan, private enterprises: 2,916 yuan, SOE: 2,789 yuan and government department: 2, 552yuan. Compared with last year, the SOE's monthly salary rises by 19 percent, 3 per cent higher than foreign enterprise. Government organs have least rise, only 3 percent.

According to experts with the Zhaopin.com, this is the first time that the SOE's salary rise has surpassed the foreign enterprises. The reform of the salary system leads to such change. But it should be noted that the reform is carried out from top to the bottom in the SOEs. The income gap is widening among different level of employees. Manager's income is closely connected with their performance and achievements. It has become more and more popular to give good return for those who shoulders management responsibility. So the rise of salary at SOEs mainly come from the income rise of the management. Ordinary employee's salary rises much slowly than their counterparts in foreign enterprise.

Beijinger's monthly salary rises by 10 percent

In all salary reports released in recent years, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen (sometimes Guangzhou) are always top three cities with highest salary. But whatever the ranking is, Beijing is always behind Shanghai. As the Zhaopin.com's statistics show, the average salary in Beijing has exceeded Shanghai for the first time this year. In 2004, Shenzhen stays No.1 with average salary of 4,109 yuan, Beijing comes as the second with 3,764 yuan and then Shanghai's 3,650 yuan. Beijing's average monthly salary rises 11 percent as against last year.

Compared with Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou, Shenzhen's advantage is not as obvious as a few years ago. It is less attractive to high-level talents in terms of cultural atmosphere and overall environment.

By People's Daily Online