China income gap between the urban rich and poor has widened to
an alarming and unreasonable level, the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC)
said in a report issued Sunday.
The NDRC made the announcement after an investigation into
China's urban population and relevant statistics from the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
"China's income gap is continuously expanding," said the NDRC
report. At present, China's Gini Coefficient (an internationally
accepted measurement of income equality) is 0.4, the international
benchmark for alarm. The NDRC warns that the actual figure may be
even higher as a number of incomes may have been
underestimated.
Statistics show that the 20 percent with the lowest income in
China's cities only get 2.75 percent of the country's total urban
income, or equivalent to only 4.6 percent of the income of China's
richest 20 percent.
The growing income gap was caused by growing salary gaps between
different industries, between the employers and the employees, and
increases in part time incomes.
Professor Li Yingsheng of the Renmin University of
China, who participated in the social investigation on urban
income, said China lacked an income adjustment mechanism.
Professor Li urges the government to further increase the
proportion of middle-level income groups and raise the income of
the lowest-level groups.
Officials with the NDRC said the government had pledged to take
tougher measures in the coming years to curb the increasing
inequality.
(Shenzhen Daily February 7, 2006)