Last year saw a per-capita annual wage rise by 14.6 percent for the number of employees decreased to 54.41 million and the wage sum totaled 572.18 billion yuan, a growth of 12.2 percent.

Employees in foreign-funded enterprises received the highest wage of 15,358 yuan in 2001, a 46 percent higher than the average level. Employees in HK-, Macao- and Taiwan-invested enterprises and shareholding enterprises earned an average wage of 11,773 yuan and 11.039 yuan respectively. The wage for workers in state-owned, collectively-owned, and integrated enterprises was all lower than the average level last year. And the annual wage for private enterprise employees was only 7,740 yuan, the lowest in the country.

From the angle of different industrial sectors, workers in tobacco, papermaking and petroleum earned high wages of 23,540 yuan, 23,140 yuan, and 21,149 yuan respectively. And workers in lumbering industry got the lowest salary of only 4,217 yuan in 2001.

The annual salary for workers in Shanghai was 17,910 yuan in 2001, the highest level among the 31 regions in the country, followed by Beijing offering workers an average annual salary of 17,221 yuan. And the annual wage for workers in Anhui Province was the lowest, only 7,928 yuan in 2001.

In addition, welfare funds also rose by 10.3 percent to reach 74.34 billion yuan in 2001, with the per- capita figure hitting 1,366 yuan, a 10.3 percent increase year-on-year.

Workers' total income, including wage and welfare funds, amounted to 11,881 yuan in 2001, a 14.1 percent rise over 2000.

(People’s Daily July 5, 2002)