China’s civil servants to get pay rise

The government in China has finally announced its long-expected plan to raise salary levels for civil servants in the country.

Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po reported the plan had already been put into effect since October 2014, and covers grass-roots officials to ministerial level officials.

The base monthly salary for ministerial level officials will increase from the current 7,020 yuan to 11,385 yuan, while the salaries for the lowest level officials will rise to 1,320 yuan from 630 yuan.

The plan also said that in the future salaries for civil servants will be adjusted every year, or every two years.

The newspaper also quoted an expert as saying this seemingly big pay rise is "reasonable" when taking inflation into account.

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“It is noteworthy that lower level officials are receiving a bigger increase," the expert was quoted as saying.

The article added while increasing the level of base salaries, the plan also puts a freeze on the rise of allowances.

“Some allowances will be merged with the base salary. The allowances for ministerial level officials will be reduced by 650 yuan, while those for the lowest level officials will be down by 220 yuan.”

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