Summary: During the Guangdong Two Meetings, multiple People’s Congress representatives called for increasing the salaries of public servants. One People’s Congress representative said that the wages for Shenzhen government workers hasn’t changed in the past six to seven years, whereas the incomes of employees for private companies has extremely increased, that if he were to work in the same position in a private enterprise, his wages would be four to five times higher. However, because of the better institutionalized benefits after retirement [for government employees], he is unable to “take the plunge” [to switch over to the private sector].
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On one side, the competition for the “iron rice bowl” [guaranteed job and retirement pension] of a civil servant is increasingly fierce; on the other side, the civil servants are constantly complaining that their incomes are low and benefits are poor, with the demand for increasing salaries getting louder. Just how do we explain this paradox?
Low wages, high pressure?
While discussing the work report of this year’s Guangdong province high court, Guangdong Provicial People’s Congress representative and Shenzhen Business Association Executive Vice-President Lin Hui expressed that because his own office is right next to the court, he is relatively familiar with the degree of hardship of the court’s employees. “I get off work relatively late, and sometimes the lights in the courthouse are still on even at 8 or 9pm, which shows how hard their work is.”
“It really isn’t easy for the people in the courthouse, and their wages really aren’t high,” Lin Hui says. Abroad, the wages for judges are comparatively high, so they very actively undertake their duty to society. The wages are basically around 10,000 for judges of mid-level administrative rank.”
Female representative Zhang Lijie of lawyer circles agreed and expressed: “Shenzhen’s ranks of judges have a various serious problem of talent drain. I know a basic-level judge, a deputy justice of the court, who says many female judges have no time to take care of their children when they go home because they are too tired.”
Zhang Lijie says that the number of judges resigning from the Shenzhen Intermediate Court has in recent years been increasing, so many people are resigning and coming out to become lawyers, with the money they are earning being many times that of being a judge.
Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress representative and Shenzhen Municipal Government Investment Project Evaluation Center Senior Engineer Liu Lin said frankly that they should increase wages for civil servants as soon as possible. Liu Lin expressed during an interview with this reporter that it isn’t just court staff, all Shenzhen civil servants have it very difficult, their workload and work stress both being very high.
[...]
Representative dispels doubts about why salaries should be increased
With regards to the proposal to increase salaries for civil servants, Liu Lin responded one by one to the questions this reporter made during an interview with China Business News and other media.
Liu Lin told this paper that the wages for Shenzhen civil servants hasn’t changed in the past six to seven years and with inflation, the pressure in everyone’s life is extremely high.
An even larger reason comes from the comparisons being made with the outside world [private sector]. “Five years, ten years ago, the income of civil servants was considered middle-upper level, but now it is considered middle-lower, because others [private sector compensation] is increasing, prices are increasing, but we are not increasing.
“The increase for private company employees these few years has been extremely large. It turns out that the average wages is probably 800,000-90,000 per year for a position, and with bonuses now, there’s even over 300,000. It is very normal for first-rate engineers in private enterprises to get 500,000-600,000.” Liu Lin says if he were to work in the same position in a private enterprise, his wages would be four to five times higher.
If so, why not just “take the plunge” and [go into the private sector]? In the face of this reporter’s follow-up question, Liu Lin says he is almost 50 years old now and that going to a private company now would mean not being able to enjoy the comparatively better institutionalized retirement benefits after all these years of low wages. “It’d be like not getting [my deserved compensation] in the front and also not getting it in the end [meaning he accepted lower wages for better retirement benefits, and changing jobs now would mean losing those future benefits, making his past sacrifices meaningless].”
This then is exactly the core of the problem. Because of the dual-track pension system, the retirement pay of civil servants and state-owned enterprise employees being much higher than those of private company personnel has continuously been a focal point of public opinion.
[...]
If the wages of civil servants are low, then why are there still so many people fiercely competing to become civil servants? With regards to this, Liu Lin replies that most of the people registering to test to become civil servants is because of the difficulty of finding employment among recent university graduates, that many private companies are unwilling to hire recent graduates without work experience but even recent graduates can test to become civil servants.
“Civil servants is in comparison relatively stable [secure] work. What more, the starting salaries of civil servants may be higher than the starting salaries at private companies, but [salaries] at private companies increase especially fast.”
[...]
[...]
On one side, the competition for the “iron rice bowl” [guaranteed job and retirement pension] of a civil servant is increasingly fierce; on the other side, the civil servants are constantly complaining that their incomes are low and benefits are poor, with the demand for increasing salaries getting louder. Just how do we explain this paradox?
Low wages, high pressure?
While discussing the work report of this year’s Guangdong province high court, Guangdong Provicial People’s Congress representative and Shenzhen Business Association Executive Vice-President Lin Hui expressed that because his own office is right next to the court, he is relatively familiar with the degree of hardship of the court’s employees. “I get off work relatively late, and sometimes the lights in the courthouse are still on even at 8 or 9pm, which shows how hard their work is.”
“It really isn’t easy for the people in the courthouse, and their wages really aren’t high,” Lin Hui says. Abroad, the wages for judges are comparatively high, so they very actively undertake their duty to society. The wages are basically around 10,000 for judges of mid-level administrative rank.”
Female representative Zhang Lijie of lawyer circles agreed and expressed: “Shenzhen’s ranks of judges have a various serious problem of talent drain. I know a basic-level judge, a deputy justice of the court, who says many female judges have no time to take care of their children when they go home because they are too tired.”
Zhang Lijie says that the number of judges resigning from the Shenzhen Intermediate Court has in recent years been increasing, so many people are resigning and coming out to become lawyers, with the money they are earning being many times that of being a judge.
Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress representative and Shenzhen Municipal Government Investment Project Evaluation Center Senior Engineer Liu Lin said frankly that they should increase wages for civil servants as soon as possible. Liu Lin expressed during an interview with this reporter that it isn’t just court staff, all Shenzhen civil servants have it very difficult, their workload and work stress both being very high.
[...]
Representative dispels doubts about why salaries should be increased
With regards to the proposal to increase salaries for civil servants, Liu Lin responded one by one to the questions this reporter made during an interview with China Business News and other media.
Liu Lin told this paper that the wages for Shenzhen civil servants hasn’t changed in the past six to seven years and with inflation, the pressure in everyone’s life is extremely high.
An even larger reason comes from the comparisons being made with the outside world [private sector]. “Five years, ten years ago, the income of civil servants was considered middle-upper level, but now it is considered middle-lower, because others [private sector compensation] is increasing, prices are increasing, but we are not increasing.
“The increase for private company employees these few years has been extremely large. It turns out that the average wages is probably 800,000-90,000 per year for a position, and with bonuses now, there’s even over 300,000. It is very normal for first-rate engineers in private enterprises to get 500,000-600,000.” Liu Lin says if he were to work in the same position in a private enterprise, his wages would be four to five times higher.
If so, why not just “take the plunge” and [go into the private sector]? In the face of this reporter’s follow-up question, Liu Lin says he is almost 50 years old now and that going to a private company now would mean not being able to enjoy the comparatively better institutionalized retirement benefits after all these years of low wages. “It’d be like not getting [my deserved compensation] in the front and also not getting it in the end [meaning he accepted lower wages for better retirement benefits, and changing jobs now would mean losing those future benefits, making his past sacrifices meaningless].”
This then is exactly the core of the problem. Because of the dual-track pension system, the retirement pay of civil servants and state-owned enterprise employees being much higher than those of private company personnel has continuously been a focal point of public opinion.
[...]
If the wages of civil servants are low, then why are there still so many people fiercely competing to become civil servants? With regards to this, Liu Lin replies that most of the people registering to test to become civil servants is because of the difficulty of finding employment among recent university graduates, that many private companies are unwilling to hire recent graduates without work experience but even recent graduates can test to become civil servants.
“Civil servants is in comparison relatively stable [secure] work. What more, the starting salaries of civil servants may be higher than the starting salaries at private companies, but [salaries] at private companies increase especially fast.”
[...]
