Employees in the finance sector earned an average annual salary of 213,391 yuan (US$27,625), the highest among all industries in 2006, while those in the service sector were at the bottom with an average annual salary of 20,194 yuan, according to a report by the Statistics Bureau of Chaoyang District in Beijing.

According to the report, annual salaries of employees in Chaoyang District averaged 48,149 yuan last year, 12,052 yuan higher than the city's average and up 18.8 percent from the previous year. Nearly two-thirds of the employees were below the average. Over 40 percent earned less than 30,000 yuan, of which 20 percent got 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. The gap between the finance and service sectors widened to 10.6 times last year from 8.4 times in 2005.

Average annual salary of foreign-owned firms in Chaoyang District was 83,784 yuan last year, 35,635 yuan higher than the average. That of wholly foreign-owned enterprises reached 104,205 yuan. That of State-owned enterprises was 37,948 yuan, 10,201 yuan lower than the average; and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-invested companies, 56,322 yuan, 8,173 yuan higher than the average.

Salaries were also at different levels among enterprises in the same industry due to the administrative level and quantity of available resources, the report shows. Take the power, gas and water supply sector as an example. The overall sector's average annual salary was 43,918 yuan, while salary of the enterprises subject to the central government reached 114,322 yuan, ranking second of its kind among all industries. Average salaries of those subject to the district government were all below the average level, except the public administration and social institutions with their average salary at 49,970 yuan.

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