BEIJING -- Average pay at Chinese state-owned enterprises was nearly double that of private-sector companies last year, as the government's policies in response to COVID-19 fueled the widest gap in data going back to 2008.
Employees at urban private companies earned an average of 65,237 yuan ($9,410) in annual pay, up 3.7% from the prior year, official data shows. That represents the smallest rise in comparable data starting in 2009 and a sharp slowdown from the 8.9% gain in 2021, when China's economy picked itself up from the initial pandemic shock.
