Will China Double Your Salary?

WITH a GDP of over RMB 60 trillion, China’s economy has again achieved a more than seven percent growth, which can’t be equalled elsewhere in the world. Also, 100 of the world’s latest top 500 companies are from China. Do these facts leave you longing for a job in China? Or to be more specific, have you starting looking for a payrise by getting a job in China?

If you believe that China can double your salary, I’m sorry to say you could be wrong. According to the Recruitment Insider Survey launched by RMG Selection, in the first quarter of 2015, 83.1 percent of the new job openings published by Chinese companies offered a less than 10 percent raise. Further, those who provided a salary increase of over 30 percent occupied just one percent of all the surveyed companies. Under such circumstances, a 20-30 percent payrise is relatively high. Moreover, data from various companies showed that transnational enterprises (Western) and joint ventures offered higher remuneration; almost 10 percent of such companies promised a 20-30 percent rise. When it comes to recruitment demands, 91.8 percent of the almost 500 surveyed companies stated that they employed new workers. Among them, the recruitment rate of state-owned enterprises ranked first, reaching 99.1 percent, while joint ventures had the lowest hiring rate at 81.8 percent.

Congratulations! The Chinese market offers great demand for your talents! But it is unlikely to double your salary. In fact, my 14 years’ experience as a headhunter in five countries has taught me that the current job market in China tends to be rational and mature with clear requirements for different positions, distinct career development paths, relatively higher overall welfare levels, and higher stability. All are favorable factors for boosting job-seekers’ salaries and prospects in the long term.

So, in actual fact, establishing a career in China earns you much more than a double salary. First of all, work experience in a mature market is valuable and provides the right climate for you to steadily improve your skills. Secondly, China’s job market is at an early stage in its maturation and will march into a phase of stable development in the future. When that happens, worldwide demands for talents who once worked in the Chinese market are going to rise, which means your market value will increase. Finally, a good welfare system and social environment give employees a sound work-life balance. Therefore, comprehensive benefits in the long term can, essentially, triple your current wage.

Are payrises capped at 10 percent in China’s job market today? Not always. For some industries and positions, 30 percent or even more in increases will be offered because demand exceeds supply. The Internet and e-commerce industry provide the largest salary increases, as is the case with their demand for talents. Large enterprises (with over 5,000 workers) promise a higher proportion of wage increases, but they are limited to senior positions. Furthermore, some start-ups tend to provide stocks and options as remuneration. Working in such enterprises is a high-risk and high-profit career choice.

To cite an example, my co-workers recently helped a candidate increase his salary in the social media field. The candidate used to be an associate manager, responsible for brand publicity in the gaming industry. After job-hopping, he took up a managerial position in a social media company. In the previous enterprise, the candidate’s wage packet included a basic salary, annual bonus, stocks, and options. The benefits for the new position were not the same. Both companies could be classified as hot industry in great demand of experienced talents. However, there remains a dearth of experienced talents in emerging industries like social media, and few appropriate employees for intermediate and high-level positions in that field. So our candidate presented a good case and saw his basic salary rise by 84 percent and his overall wage increase by 50 percent. Therefore, if you are professional working in the Internet and mobile Internet industry (or relevant sectors), this might be one of the best times for you to find a job in China.

Now back to our initial question: Will China double your salary? For most cases the answer is “No.” Will working in China brings you double market values? My answer is, indubitably, “Yes.”