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Average Chinese executive pay cheques crossed 1 million yuan for the first time in 2016

Average remuneration of the highest-paid C-suite managers rose 9 per cent last year to cross the million yuan mark, according to Deloitte’s data.

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An employee counts Chinese five yuan banknotes at the Professional Foreign Currency Exchange Ltd. (PFCE) store in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg
Maggie Zhang

Executives at China’s publicly traded companies had a bumper year in 2016, with the average annual salary among the highest-paid C-suite managers crossing the million yuan mark for the first time, while a majority of industries received pay raises, according to a survey.

The average 2016 remuneration of the highest-paid executives rose 9 per cent to 1.02 million yuan (US$146,300) per annum among China’s publicly traded companies, according to data by the accounting firm Deloitte, in a survey of 3,100 companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.

Up to 80 per cent of industries surveyed reported increments for senior management, led by the hospitality and catering industries, with 37 per cent in compound annual raises over three years.

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The bigger pay packets reflect the overall shortage of talent and experience among China’s executive ranks, as the labour market failed to keep pace with the country’s economic growth and development. It also indicate a buildup of latent pressure from an instruction three years ago by Chinese president Xi Jinping to cap executive salaries at state-owned enterprises.
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“The remunerations at public companies reflect the trend of rising costs of talent in China,” said Jennifer Feng, the chief human resources expert at 51job.com, one of the country’s largest online jobs markets.

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