Salary of civil servants below average: report

BEIJING -- The average income of Chinese civil servant is a little below the citizen's average, according to an April survey by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The average annual salary of a civil servant was 46,207 yuan ($7,383) in 2012. Financial professionals earn the most among all the social professions, almost twice as much of the average salary for Chinese workers.

The report shows the average annual income of civil servants is not only far behind those in finance or IT, but also relatively low compared to those in similar social services such as education and public health.

"It is high time China raised the general income standard, especially for low income households," said Zhang Chewei, co-author of the report and vice dean of institute of population and labor economics with CASS. In some places, the salary for basic-level civil servant has not been raised since 2006.

The public are concerned that despite relatively low salaries, civil servants enjoy a substantial package of welfare funded by public budget such as housing subsidies.

Since the Communist Party of China launched a national campaign against bureaucracy and excessive official expenditure in late 2012, many civil servants' off-the-books income has suffered and some are considering a change of job.

A senior officials with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in March that any rise of salary would be skewed toward civil servants in remote regions and those at grass-roots level.