Young career women use a quarter of their monthly earnings on beauty products, a recent survey shows. Each year, they spend three and a half months' salary on clothing. Half of them have credit cards, and one fourth of them overdraw these cards.

 

Pink collar worker refers to worker works in a relatively clean, safe environment, in a job that is considered traditionally female.

 

The Beijing Morning Post published this survey of the lifestyles of China's young career women, whom they called pink collar workers, on Tuesday.

 

The survey was carried out in eight Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Dalian and Chengdu.

 

The survey indicates that the average income of these so-called pink collar workers is 4,420.9 yuan (about US$578). Beijing women earn the most, with an average salary reaching 6,000 yuan (US$784) per month. While their counterparts in Dalian earn the least. Nevertheless Beijing women were found to be the least satisfied with their lives, while those in Hangzhou were the most satisfied.

 

Eighty percent of the interviewees indicated travel as hobby. Participants were said to spend one seventh of their monthly income on entertainment such as watching movies, or going to karaoke bars and cafes. Two thirds of their income is said to be spent on consumer goods. Half of the participants use credit cards to pay for the bills and one fifth, maxed out their cards at least once.

 

The average monthly expenditure of these pink-collar workers is 2,901.5 yuan (US$379) per month.

 

All interviewees held at minimum a college degree, and worked in the fields of management, government, media or finance. The average age of these participants was 29. Most of those questioned are single or stick to a DINK (double income no kids) family pattern.

 

(CRI.cn May 30, 2007)