Civil servant lives in China

"I have a low pay." "But you enjoy an excellent benefit package!"

This is your typical conversation between a civil servant and non-civil servant in China.

In this country, civil servants are often associated with potential benefits and gray incomes. Yet the situation changed in 2013, after the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued its "eight-point" anti-bureaucracy rules.

Due to these new and strict rules, common benefits for civil servants such as festival allowances, moon cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival and gift packages for Spring Festival, were all cancelled. Many grassroots civil servants have already complained that it is soon becoming impossible to make ends meet.

According to Xu Yaotong, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, this put the spotlight on problems that had previously been overlooked. "Civil servants should not enjoy that many special benefits," he said.

Among the various perks offered to civil servants, the dual pension system has sparked the greatest controversy. The system entitles civil servants and other public employees to a pension totaling around several times that of citizens employed by non-public entities.

Yet the civil servants do not consider this a positive thing as it makes them feel daunted about leaving "the service." Civil servant pensions come from government expenditure. As a result, they are not entitled to the money if they choose to leave the job position halfway. This means that if they quit, they will lose the benefits they have worked and waited so many years for.

For most young civil servants, it's too early to worry about pensions. The most pressing problem for them is the low pay, which is far from sufficient to cover their daily expenditures, such as housing debts and education fees, the two biggest headaches for the younger Chinese generations.

Under such pressure, young civil servants believe it is normal to ask for a pay rise. But in the eyes of the public, who assume that they enjoy a large number of special benefits already, it seems ridiculous they still crave more money.

According to Liu Xutao, another professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, instead of arguing whether the civil servant pay is high or low, it would be more efficient to reform the decision-making system concerning the pay.

"The government is like a butler and the people are the master. It's obviously improper for a butler to decide on his own pay," Liu said. "But the butler's work will also be affected if his salary is too low. When there is a need, a pay rise should be permitted."

Liu suggested that civil servants' pay should be decided by the People's Congress, China's legislature organ, at different levels. As long as the decision-making process is conducted in an open and fair manner, the results will be well-received by the public.

Any pay rise is based on streamlining the civil service sector. Organizational overlapping, overstaffing and slacking at work are the three problems in the civil service sector the public has most complaints about.

Of course, some young civil servants don't agree with this. They believe the crux of the problem lies in an unfair distribution of work. For example, in an office, it is common that the green employees are responsible for the majority of the work, while the older ones just drink tea and surf the Web all day.

"There is undoubtedly much room for streamlining," Xu Yaotong said. He suggested that the government adopt more high technology or outsource some of the work to non-public companies. Only when the civil service is cut to the bone, can the civil servant pay adjustment be discussed.

In addition to their income, young civil servants also worry about their career development. "Six or seven years have passed, but only a few of my peers got promoted for their outstanding abilities and communication skills. Some people were mediocre, but they worked hard and patiently waited for opportunities to arrive. A handful of people were strong enough to quit the job. And the rest of us are simply stuck there wasting our lives," said a young civil servant.

The so-called ceiling effect surely exists in the career development of civil servants, said Li Hezhong, director of the Department of Public Administration of Wuhan University. He suggested that instead of the post-related salary structure, there should be a work-related ranking system to differentiate in civil servant pay.

"It's like when you are in college, where some professors can make more money than the school directors," said Liu Xutao. "When the career structure is improved, civil servants will realize their value in their own posts and feel no need to vie for the leading posts."