Job Discussion Forums

[creeper1]

This little calculation allows you to work out how you are doing compared to local Chinese workers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17543356

I have to admit I am doing rather well.

Ofcourse I am in Beijing and I am sure poorly paid factory wokers in Guangdong province bring down the average big time but nevertheless it worked as a pick-me-up today.

I thought I would share.

How did you do?

[Zero]

Chinese employers are fond of providing most compensation in the form of extras such as housing assistance, bonuses, "reimbursement" of expenses, meal cards, gift cards, etc. in order to keep nominal income low. Taxes are avoided that way. Additionally, Chinese families are -extremely- efficient about intergenerational wealth transfer. Add the fact that in the last couple of decades, many families have acquired an "extra" house as they lost land or houses to development projects -- the value of which will also be passed along to a younger generation.

You are not doing better than the locals.

[naturegirl321]

Salary is just one part of the pay package, that's why you shouldn't believe employers or recruiters who tell you that you'll make double or triple what the locals do.

[shadowrider]

[MisterButtkins]

Not to mention that most of the people dragging the average salary down are peasants in the countryside, or people with menial jobs like construction workers or waitresses. When you toss those out, the FT is making considerably less than a typical middle-class city dweller.

[wangdaning]

[twilothunder]

According to the GINI index (a widely accepted measure of distribution of income), China has even greater inequality (World Bank figures) than the US.*

There is serious wealth here, but I really think it's concentrated in the hands of not even 5%, but around 1% of the population overall.

The vast majority of Chinese are seriously poor.

*(I appreciate that things like average salary on that BBC site and the GINI index are difficult to reliably calculate in such a cash economy, but still...)

[MisterButtkins]

[Miles Smiles]

Uh, well, let's see. According to the BBC website, I am making about 50% more (in USD) than I'm really making if I use that website's conversion from rmb to dollars. Worse, its calculations puts me a hair below "World Average Wage" on the list of countries, but 222% higher than the Chinese average.

Real world conversion rates are quite a bit different if I use the XE conversion site: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Has the BBC developed a collective brain tumor, or is one of Murdoch's moles working for it now?

Sorry, but I must declare that there is something seriously wrong with the website, and any supposed collected data is flawed, and therefore invalid.

And now a late-breaking NEWS FLASH : Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

[MisterButtkins]

I think it's in PPP

[ecubyrd94]

Your wage is 806% of the China average and 357% of the world average. Wow! Really? I don't feel rich, even compared to locals, lol. I do know that government employed doctors are grossly underpaid/overworked from first hand experience. I'm not sure about other sectors.

[Miles Smiles]

[ecubyrd94]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

It's not a fair nor accurate look at the true situation here.

Look, the comparison is not comparing foreign university teachers in China to Chinese university teachers in China. You are trying to say that we do so much better than farmers or market sellers or KFC waitresses?

Of course we do!

Just like in my country, a university teacher does much better than a waitress or a shop assistant or a taxi driver.

Comparing foreign teachers making 5K an hour in a university to a Chinese professor who makes far more than that (ask how he affords the Audi sometime!) and you'll see a true comparison.

We foreigners get ripped off here and they are laughing at us every single day. When we "brag" about making 5K a month, they laugh inside and wonder what kind of family we could ever support on that measly wage.

[MisterButtkins]