World Income Rankings: Chinese Earn More than Ethiopians

From NetEase:

World Income Rankings: China High Income Earners Comparable to South African Drivers

Summary: An American website launched a wage comparison between various countries in the world. According to the most recently released statistics by the national statistics bureau, 56,389 yuan RMB is considered part of the high-income group. This reporter entered 56,389 yuan and learned that this amount of pay is 6x that of an Ethiopian schoolteacher, comparable to the earnings of a South African driver, and just 0.00026 times the income of the Queen of England.

From the 22nd to 25th of this month, the 44th World Economic Forum was held in the small Swiss town of Davos. As the world’s elites congregated in Davos to discuss world economic trends, America’s CNN website launched a world wage comparison where on its official website, all you have to do is enter your income level and you can find out how you compare to the earnings of an Ethiopian teacher, a driver in South Africa, and the Queen of England.

According to the most recently released statistics by the national statistics bureau, 56,389 yuan RMB is considered part of the high-income group. With regards to this, this reporter entered 56,389 yuan and performed a comparison with the levels of income in other countries.

China high-income earners comparable to the incomes of South African drivers

According to the most recently released statistics by the national statistics bureau, the average total income of urban residents in 2013 was 29,547 yuan. Among them, people of the the high-income group could earn 56,389 yuan, people of the middle-income group could earn 24,518 yuan, and people of the low-income group could earn 11,434 yuan.

To compare incomes in China with those of other countries, this reporter selected the China region on the CNN website, entered the number 56,389, and after the website performed the comparisons, learned that this level of pay is 6 times that of an Ethiopian teacher, comparable to the earnings of a South African driver, and is 0.00026 times that of the Queen of England.

Middle-income group people can earn 24,518 yuan, which is 3 times that of an Ethiopian teacher, comparable to that of a janitor in Thailand, and is 0.00011 times that of the Queen of England.

Low-income group people can earn 11,424 yuan, which is comparable to that of an Ethiopian teacher’s wages, half the wages of a janitor in Thailand, and 0.00005 times that of the Queen of England.

World’s Minimum Wage Rankings: China 17th Place

The world wage level report released in 2013 by strategists for technology company ConvergEx show that mainland China is ranked 17th, with a minimum wage of 0.8 USD per hour.

Among the rankings, Australia was at the top of the rankings with 16.88 USD per hour. Ranked at the top were mostly developed countries, with France placing second with a pay of 12.09 USD per hour, and New Zealand placing third at 11.18 USD per hour. Outside of this, the United Kingdom and Canada also successfully placed in the top five. Japan was above the United States with a high pay of 8.17 USD, successfully surpassing the “median” of the United States. Te minimum wage of the United States was ranked 7th in the world, considered to be among the medium range.

the BRIC countries were ranked near the bottom, with mainland China ranked 17th, with a minimum wage of 0.8 USD per hour.

The actual lowest minimum wage was Sierra Leone, where the per hour wages of the workers there is just 0.03 USD.

Shocking wealth gap

The 44th World Economic Forum was held from the 22nd to 25th in the small Swiss town of Davos, and on the eve of the forum, the “2014 Global Risks Report” was published, which assessed the severity, probability of occurrence, and potential impact of 31 global risks, and concluded that increasing long-term wealth disparity is the risk that is most likely to cause serious global harm in the upcoming ten years.

As indicated earlier in the “2012 Global Risk Report” published by the World Economic Forum, severe wealth disparity and unstable government finances are the greatest threats facing the world economy. Even now, increasing wealth disparity is producing wide-ranging effects on the world economy.

According to a new report from Oxfam, the total wealth of the world’s 85 richest people is equivalent to the total property possessed by the world’s 3.5 billion poor population.

With India as an example, over the past 10 years, the number of rich people with over 1 billion and up grew from 6 people to 61 people, collectively holding about 250 billion USD in wealth. The report claims: “What is shocking is that the percentage of assets controlled by the minority of elites increased in India from 1.8% in 2003 to 26% in 2008.”

A Story of Pay

The difficult lives of the post-80s generation in Italy

In Italy, the unemployment rate of youth between 15 and 24 years old has reached a record-breaking level of 40.1%, while the number of people aged 55 and over who are still working has increased from 2.8 million to 3.5 million in a short 5 years. Italy clearly isn’t considered a country of youth. Over the past 10 years, nearly 4 million university graduates have left Italy, while only 50,000 foreigners of the same level of education have come to Italy.

Young Italians leaving the country to find work sometimes face enormous risks. 20-year-old waiter Joele Leotta moved from Lecco of the Lombardy region to the town of Maidstone southeast of London in the UK, only to be beaten to death by a group of Lithuanians, who accused Leotta of stealing their jobs.

The average wage of Italian “post-80s generation” is about 1000 EUR per month (approximately 8350 yuan RMB), and as a result, media has jokingly referred to them as the “1000 Euro Generation” [“Generazione mille euro”]. This little amount of pay is not enough to allow them to get the bank loan [mortgage] necessary to purchase a first home.

Comments from NetEase:

怀念我的母校美国耶鲁大学 [网易上海市网友]：

I’m an American working in China and I can tell everyone that taxes are high in the United States, but the social safety nets are perfected [more complete]. Medical care, education, elderly care/retirement, none of them require the people to worry about. And when it comes to housing and cars, the prices aren’t very high. Therefore, they don’t need to spend all their time and energy making money like people in China yet still be unable to spend that money.

网易重庆市网友 网易重庆市网友 ip：59.53.*.*:

So we’ve truly accomplished making wages like those of Africa, prices like those of Europe, and social welfare like that of Antarctica.

我用脚投票 [网易加拿大网友]：

The minimum wage here in Ontario is 10.25 CAD/hour, which is probably equivalent to 119,000 RMB/year.

制度是中国所有问题的根源 [网易英国网友]：

According to 2010 United States standards, if a household of four has 22,314 USD (about 61 USD per day) in income, they can be considered part of the poor population, Calculated by number of persons, this is an average of 15 USD per person. This standard is 15 times higher than China’s.

一贴流芳 [网易河南省南阳市网友]：

The books say everyday that capitalist countries exploit the working people, that the labor force is cheaply priced [. However, I’ve discovered that the vast majority of our households can earn a year’s worth of money and still be afraid of going out for a vacation, while in America and the UK, even the janitors and whatever have petit bourgeois lifestyles.
After all this time, of saying how other people exploit the working people, it is instead the other way around. It is us who are the biggest fucking 2B, the most TM cheaply priced.

网易上海市网友 [毛澤東是上班族的大救星]：

In my parents’ generation, there were large pots of food [communal kitchens/dining], no overtime, and while the wages weren’t high, prices were very low, social welfare good, housing provided by the work units [employers], medical expenses low, and the happiness coefficient high.
In our generation, the basic salaries are low, we have to do overtime all the time, wages don’t increase yet prices increase wildly, we can’t afford to get medical care, there’s no hope of buying a home, you can buy a car but can’t afford to burn the gas so you leave it at home, while you treat your own small illnesses and dare not treat the large illnesses, and while an education is on the surface not expensive, you have to spend money on all sorts of hidden things because after all, no matter how poor you are, you can’t scrimp on education, right?! So there’s no extra money to be filial to your parents, and your parents even need to subsidize you with their money. I haven’t had a feeling of happiness in so many years now!

dwb111222 [网易浙江省网友]： (responding to above)

The feelings of happiness are all in Xinwen Lianbo, where the people are all covered in smiles beaming with happiness.

xuesong83 [网易湖北省襄阳市网友]： (also responding to 毛澤東是上班族的大救星)

Fuck, just seeing about a cold cost me 800. When I saw the doctor, he didn’t ask me anything but simply gave me a lab test form, told me to go get a blood test, and that we’d talk after getting the results first.

天使是山东人 [网易北京市网友]：

Lang Xianping: “Add up all of the wages and income of the country’s people, divide it by the country’s GDP, and you’ll give a number: Europe and North America are the highest, about 55%. South America averages 38%. The Philippines and Thailand are 28%. Iran and Turkey are roughly 25%. All the African countries are 20% and lower. 90% of the people are saying our country is on the same level as Africa, but you people are simply too optimistic, because let me tell you, our China is 8%. The world’s lowest!

网易湖南省娄底市网友 ip：42.49.*.*:

The so-called second in the world in GDP, where over 5000 is considered high-income, talk about making other people’s bellies hurt with laughter. Most first-tier city civil servants exceed 5000. A home in a first-tier city is 10 million, and even in a county seat, buying a home means 10 years without eating and drinking, and that doesn’t include renovations/furnishings. It truly is hard to live in the Heavenly Kingdom.