Exclusive | China’s civil servants find there is a price to pay for corruption-busting salary boost
- Efforts to reduce bribery through higher pay have seen some salaries triple
- Slashed benefits and bigger workloads leave bureaucrats feeling dissatisfied
Complaints about low pay among China’s 40 million civil servants, at all levels of government, are nothing new but in recent years the government has been boosting its bureaucrats’ incomes in a move some people have linked to a wider anti-corruption campaign.
While the extra money has been welcomed, some civil servants say they are working harder for fewer benefits, while still receiving what they feel is a meagre salary, compared to other workers.
For the first five years of his career as a municipal civil servant in Beijing, Wang Shan (not his real name) did not see a pay rise. Then, in 2015, his monthly salary more than doubled, from 3,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan (US$450 to $1,000).
But, he says, at the same time his workload increased and, on top of that, some benefits he used to enjoy have been gradually whittled away. His performance is also being tightly watched, he says.
The November 2015 pay rise was the first in nine years for China’s bureaucrats, with some basic salaries doubled or even tripled. The increase was also backdated to October 2014.
The lowest ranked national civil servants saw the two major components of their basic salary rise from a combined 630 yuan to a combined 1,320 yuan. Those in the highest rank – including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang – saw their pay increase from 7,020 yuan to 11,385 yuan.