(Yicai) Nov. 20 -- People working in Beijing and Shanghai for non-private companies, which includes government bodies, collectively owned firms, joint-stock companies, joint ventures, enterprises funded by foreign investors, and firms funded by investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, were paid the highest average wage in the country last year, according to a recent report.

People working in the urban non-private sector in Beijing and Shanghai received an average annual salary of CNY200,000 (USD27,865) in 2022, according to China Statistical Yearbook 2023. And those employed in the private sector in these two mega cities also earned the most nationwide at over CNY100,000 (USD13,933) on average a year.

Shanghai and Beijing boast a modern services sector, high tech industries, emerging sectors and a “headquarters economy” with many job posts offering fat packages, analysts said. This has lured a great deal of talent to the two cities, and so the average pay is high.

Wages among employees in non-private firms climbed 6.7 percent last year from the year before to an average yearly salary of CNY114,029 (USD15,866), according to the National Bureau of Statistics. While those in the private sector advanced 3.7 percent to CNY65,237 (USD9,088).

In the non-private sector, employees in 18 provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, the Xizang Autonomous Region and eastern Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, had an average yearly remuneration of more than CNY100,000 (USD14,000), the report said. 

And in the private sector, the average annual wage in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu surpassed CNY70,000, indicating that those living in the coastal regions in the south and east of the country had relatively higher salaries. 

The three best-paying sectors, regardless of whether it is a non-private or private company, were information technology, finance, as well as scientific research and technological services.

And those working in the mining sector in the coal-rich Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi and Heilongjiang provinces were the highest paid in these regions.

Editor: Kim Taylor