Wages for Executives, Managers and Professionals in China are Near US levels

Forbes – Based on 2011 salaries, some Chinese workers are earning as much as their American counterparts.


Position                             Annual Salary (US$)

Engineering supervisor                25,000 – 42,000
General manager                      130,000 – 330,000
R and D director                     100,000 – 167,000
Procurement director                  67,000 – 150,000
Quality director                      67,000 – 150,000
Chief technology officer             167,000 – 330,000
Marketing director                   100,000 – 130,000
PR/communications manager             34,000 – 67,000
Regional sales manager                67,000 – 100,000

Source: Hays 2012 Salary Guide – Asia

Of course, most Chinese do not have professional jobs, and minimum wage and social safety net comparisons to the U.S. are dismal. The federal minimum wage level in the U.S. is $7.25 per hour. A 40 hour work week means $290 a week gross for the lowest full-time workers in America. In Shenzhen and Shanghai, two of the highest earning cities in China, minimum wage is $238 and $230, respectively…per month.

There is 25 page salary survey from Gemini. It quotes monthly salary ranges by position in RMB.

China Daily – More than 80 percent of employers in China have planned to increase employees’ salaries by more than 6 percent year-on-year in 2012. Inflation in China for 2012 is expected to be about 4%.

Among the 291 surveyed employers from the Chinese mainland, 29 percent said they will increase salaries by at least 10 percent, while another 29 percent will add between 5 and 10 percent, and 13 percent of respondents will increase salaries by between 3 and 6 percent.

Wikipedia has a list of Chinese administrative divisions by disposable income per capita for 2010. Per Capita disposable income probably increased about 5-10% since that time.

Official statistics of disposable income do not cover the rampant under reporting of income in China.

China’s households hide as much as 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of income that is not reported in official figures, with 80 percent accrued by the wealthiest people according to a Credit Suisse Equities Research Study

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