Wage gap narrows only slightly
Print Edition
The wage gap between rich and poor in China narrowed slightly in 2013, but there was still room for improvement, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The country’s Gini coefficient, a measure of the income gap on a scale of 0 to 1, was 0.473 in 2013, down from 0.474 in 2012 but still higher than the warning level of 0.4 set by the United Nations.
Bureau chief Ma Jiantang said the official Gini coefficient in China was “not very low,” which had to be addressed through better allocation of resources and the acceleration of income distribution reform. But he rejected doubts over the figure’s accuracy.
“Some others do produce higher figures concerning China’s Gini coefficient, and we are studying their methodologies,” Ma said. “But on the whole, our figure reflects the reality in China as our calculation involves a large sample and is based on long-term observation.”
More than 400,000 households in different income groups were selected randomly in the bureau’s investigation, and their bill books were kept updated for a long time, Ma said, adding that the figure produced by the World Bank was similar to the official one.
“China will beef up efforts on raising the proceeds of low-income families, better regulating the income distribution process and combating illegal practices to achieve a fairer allocation,” Ma said.
In 2013, the disposable income of China’s urban residents grew 9.7 percent from a year earlier to 26,955 yuan (US$4,418), while rural households reported their income was 8,896 yuan, up 12.4 percent on an annual basis.
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