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Income divide concerns stretching
By Bao Xinyan and Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-04 05:51
The ever-widening income gap between the richest and poorest urban
residents has become a hot topic of discussion among officials, experts and
everyday people in East China's Jiangsu Province.
Official statistics show that last year the highest earners made 10.7 times
as much as the lowest, compared to 5.4 times in 2000 and 9.9 in 2003, according
to the Nanjing Morning Post.
"It will harm social reform as well as social stability if the income
discrepancy problem is not properly dealt with," said Zhang Yan, chairwoman of
the Workers' Union in Jiangsu.
A survey conducted by Jiangsu Workers' Union shows that in 2004, the average
per capita income among the top 10 per cent of earners in Jiangsu stood at
13,320 yuan (US$1,680) per year, while that of the lowest 10 per cent was just
1,397 yuan (US$166).
Zhang said the union will try to lift the lowest income level in the
province, which is currently 320 yuan (US$39) per month.
The provincial government is calling for regulations to avoid excessive
discrepancies in income distribution.
Wu Ruilin, deputy governor of Jiangsu, said at a recent conference that the
province is trying to revise the income spread as well as taxation to try to
narrow the gap.
"Sufficient employment is the most effective way to solve the problem," said
Fan Jian, an economist at Nanjing University.
"Due to the reform of State-owned enterprises, a large number of redundant
workers have been laid off. The income gap between the working population and
laid-off workers is widening," he explained.
Fan emphasized that companies and enterprises should strive to provide more
job opportunities, and the government should strengthen the development of the
social security system.
Li Yin, a cleaner in Nanjing, the provincial capital, who had been laid-off,
thinks the income gulf is larger than the statistics show.
"My monthly salary is only 400 yuan (US$48), which hardly meets my needs.
However, I have heard that some people can earn even several tens of thousands
of yuan in one month, and I just do not understand why our incomes are so
different," she said.
Wen Jin, with a master's degree in business administration, earns 100,000
yuan (US$12,300) a year working for a foreign-invested company in Suzhou.
"Knowledge is power and money," she said. "But it is not always the truth.
Some of my schoolmates have a much lower income, although they are as
intelligent as me."
Zhang Bo, a 26-year-old office clerk from Nanjing, thinks that income tax
holds the key to closing the gap.
"The high income people should pay more tax, while the
low income group pay little, or even no tax," he said.
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