Top managers of SOEs should not be paid extremely high salaries that are hundreds of times of national average, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. The following is an excerpt:

When the standing committee of the NPC discussed the draft of the National Assets Law on Oct 24, some members asked questions about how to regulate the high salaries for leaders of State-owned enterprises (SOEs). As Chen Yiju, a member of the committee, believed, such salaries should not be too high - they should be not only linked to the economic returns of the enterprise, but also to national average salaries.

The current salary system for top managers of State-owned enterprises started in 2002, requiring that the salaries of top managers can be as high as 12 times of those of ordinary employees. But this regulation has already been violated in practice, for the gap between the salaries of top managers and grassroots employees has widened to hundreds of times in some SOEs. To relate their payments not only to economic returns but also to national average salaries is obviously a sound measure to regulate their payment.

Meanwhile, the "invisible" benefits enjoyed by top SOE managers should also be addressed. Just as Zheng Gongcheng, a member of the committee, said, some monopoly SOEs have not only high salaries and bonuses, but also high benefits. The housing allowance in some SOEs can reach several thousand yuan per month.

Besides, in some SOEs top managers have multiple identities: they are partly officials and partly professional managers and thus enjoy the benefits of both the government and the corporate systems. They jump between the two systems, obtaining what they want. So, it is unfair to pay them according to market rules.

It is immoral for SOEs' top managers to have extremely high salaries when most employees are just making ends meet.

(China Daily October 31, 2008)