According to qianlong.com, while overall urban-rural income level grows each year income gap of residents in Beijing keeps enlarging with its wealth gap seriously exceeding international alert line, as revealed by Zhang Chewei, deputy director of the Population and Labor Economics Institute, CASS, at the Population Development and Social Harmony Forum.

Zhang said a distinct difference between China and developed countries in the west is that low-income people account for very high percentage and income odds hamper the development of a well-off society. International alert line for wealth gap is 0.45 (Gini Coefficient) while the level in Beijing has reached around 0.5, high enough to alert municipal administrators.

Du Wulu, senior statistician with Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau, released the latest data at the forum. From January to September average cash income for Beijing residents was 11,698 yuan, up 12.6 percent year on year. He stressed, however, that the overall increase of average resident income cannot conceal the fact that wealth gap is expanding.

Du said, income gap between rich and poor among Beijing urban residents is expanding remarkably, growing from the 4.53:1 in 2002 to 4.7:1 in 2003 and then to 5:1 in 2004.

Income gap among different industries is also becoming increasingly evident. A survey shows that the highest income of an insurance salesman is 240,000 yuan per year while the lowest annual income of a housekeeper is only 6,540 yuan, constituting a 40 times difference. Within the same industry a manager earn 13 times as much as an ordinary employee.

Du believes that the expanding resident income difference is a newly-emerged contradiction amidst the rapid economic growth, which is result of lagging of corresponding distribution adjustment measures or policies. He said fostering ability of low-income people to earn more instead of simply increasing subsidies, proper preferential policies for low-income groups in public education and healthcare etc., reducing or remitting the taxation for low-income earners as well as raising salary level for retirees have all been proved to be effective measures.

By People��s Daily Online