National Guidelines in China - Equal Pay

Ministry of Labour and Social Security

Provisional Administrative Measures on Wage Incomes of Foreign Investment Enterprises of 14 February 1997

The aim of these Measures is to guide Sino-foreign equity joint venture enterprises, Sino-foreign cooperative joint venture enterprises and wholly foreign-owned enterprises in deciding appropriate wage income standards for their employees (article 1). Actual wage income includes basic wages, bonuses, subsidies, allowances and other wage-equivalent income (article 2).

According to article 3, a foreign investment enterprise must abide by the principle of equal pay for equal work. Likewise, the nominal wage income of Chinese senior management personnel is also to be decided by the enterprise’s board of directors in accordance with the principle of equal pay for equal work (article 8).