China is striving to increase the average Chinese wages by 15 percent annually in a bid to achieve a two-fold increase in pay by the end of 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security (MHRSS) said according to a report in the Beijing Times Tuesday.
Yang Zhiming, vice-minister of human resources and social security, speaking during a national labor relation conference Monday, said 13 provinces have raised their minimum wage by an average of 22.8 percent, with more cities likely to see a pay raise within the year.
Addressing the widening income gap between the wealthy and the poor, Yang said the income of officials should be transparent and payment regulations should be re-examined for people with a high income.
The report says heads of 90 percent major Central State-owned enterprises can earn in excess of a million yuan a year. Yang said the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) is therefore set to narrow the income gap and re-distribute human resources and money among the high wage earners.
The problem of migrant workers failing to get paid on time will also be addressed by the newly-revised Criminal Law, which added "malicious arrears of wage crime" into its articles thanks to the ministry's lobbying the Standing Committee of National People's Congress earlier this March during China's "two sessions."
"We'd spare no effort step by step to ensure there's no wage-arrears in China by the end of 2013," Yang said.