China increases wages, incentives to engineers

By Sunray Liu

With high technology considered to be the driving force in China's economy, the electronics industry here is focusing more than ever on its technical teams. One sign of the rising stature of engineers in China is recent messages from government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, which announced raises of as much as 50 percent for key workers-including engineers.

The basic Chinese electronic industry includes state-owned enterprises (SOEs), privately run enterprises (PREs), Sino-foreign joint ventures (SFJVs), wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOEs) and the Representative Office of Foreign Enterprise, all of which have different salary models and ranges.

SOEs employ the highest number of engineers, and most SOEs follow regulations set forth by the Chinese Ministry of Personnel regarding engineers' salaries and career paths. These guidelines specify that the holder of a bachelor's degree will be given the title of assistant engineer one year after graduating from technical school. An assistant engineer will be upgraded to engineer after working for three years and, in most cases, passing a foreign-language test. After five years, an engineer will be promoted to senior engineer, providing he or she passes an English-language test.

Many traditional SOEs offer engineers benefits such as a free house, transportation and full medical reimbursement. Most engineers in SOEs are compensated with a mix of base salary, allowances and bonuses. Assistant engineers, engineers and senior engineers receive annual salaries of around $4,500, $5,500 and $6,500, respectively. Some differences exist among companies in different industries and financial situations, although the base salaries are almost identical. As in the United States, salaries vary widely depending on geographic area, with engineers in the big cities such as Beijing commanding higher pay.

Newly founded state-owned enterprises and privately run enterprises always hire engineers from traditional SOEs, but they do not offer free housing and medical reimbursement. Instead, they induce prospects with higher wages. An in-demand engineer in these companies can earn more than $8,000 annually, including bonuses.

PREs and some SOEs offer much higher salaries for engineers with key technical talents. For example, Shenzhen Huawei Tech. Co. Ltd., one of the top telecom equipment suppliers in China, is said to pay at least $25,000 to senior engineers with a doctoral degree.

Many SFJVs or joint ventures build their work force by hiring from local partners or rivals. According to experts, SFJVs should pay at lest $10,000 for an engineer and much more for senior engineers.

Because they often spend a lot of money on finding and training their employees, WFOEs try to pay well-from $10,000 and up. "Our offers to Chinese researchers are better than other big companies and local companies, although they are less than American standard," said Kai-Fu Lee, managing director of Microsoft Research China.

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