Survey: Shanghai skilled workers get better salaries

Skilled workers in Shanghai were paid 135,500 yuan (US$21,300) annually last year on average, 11,400 yuan higher than the average pay of all employees in the city, according to a survey report released by the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on Wednesday.

The survey was conducted on 198,500 front-line workers with vocational qualification certificates from 3,668 enterprises in Shanghai, including state-owned, foreign-invested and private firms in micro to large scales. They covered various industries, such as manufacturing, logistics and warehousing, as well as information technology.

The workers include technical workers at primary, intermediate and high levels, as well as technicians and senior technicians. High-level technical workers, technicians and senior technicians are regarded as highly skilled talent.

Their pay included basic salary, bonuses, all kinds of subsidies and overtime wage.

Highly skilled talents earned 170,700 yuan annually last year, more than 46,600 yuan higher the average pay for all employees in the city.

About 41.4 percent of the surveyed workers were from the manufacturing industry and their median income was 114,100 yuan last year, compared to 102,500 yuan for general administration staff.

Skilled workers at companies supplying electricity, heat, gas and water were the most highly paid, with their median income at 231,000 yuan, followed by those from the IT service industries (147,600 yuan) and scientific research industries (128,900 yuan).

Salaries of those in the wholesale and retail industry were relatively lower, with their median income at 99,100 yuan last year, which was also higher than the average pay for all staff in the industry, whose median income was 92,700 yuan.

China has been trying to attract more people to work in skills areas in recent years to support its further development. One of its efforts is to improve the pay and sense of honor of skilled workers.

This year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released a guidance for enterprises to design pay packages for skilled workers.

The survey report is another effort to promote public respect for artisanship and attract more talent to join in the pursuit of excellence in skills.