Guangzhou has highest average salaries for cities in mainland China
Survey of cities, based on data from statistics bureaus, shows employees in the Guangdong capital receive an average of 57,470 yuan a year
A survey of more than two dozen urban areas on the mainland has found salaries are highest in Guangzhou, where employees receive an average of 57,473 yuan (HK$70,150) a year.
The Guangdong capital was followed by the national capital Beijing and Nanjing , where the figure was 56,061 yuan and 54,713 yuan respectively.
The figures were based on data about income levels for last year compiled by the cities' statistics bureaus, and the rankings were done by China News Service, which reported the findings yesterday. Only employees whose registered residence was in a city were included, meaning migrant workers' pay was excluded.
Twenty-two provincial capitals and four municipalities were studied. Five other capitals - Urumqi , Nanning , Lanzhou , Lhasa and Haikou - have yet to publish their figures.
Shanghai ranked fifth in the survey, while Chengdu in Sichuan province recorded the lowest remuneration - 34,008 yuan a year.
However, Sammy Qu, a consultant with a Hong Kong-based headhunting company, cautioned that the rankings might not be precise as the figures were based on data from a city's own statistics bureau.
"The rankings could be used as a reference but might not reflect the actual situation, as we don't know if the samples were collected identically by each city," Qu said. She was speaking privately and not as a representative of her company.