1st LD-Writethru: China's civil servants to get pay raise

Over 40 million civil servants and employees of government-sponsored institutions will be given, on average, a monthly salary increase of about 300 yuan (48 U.S. dollars), a senior official said on Friday.

"The increase is not big," said Li Zhong, spokesman of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, at a press conference, who added previous media reports of a 60 percent pay raise were not accurate.

The adjustment coincides with efforts to unify the pension system for private sector employees, civil servants and employees of government-sponsored institutions, according to the spokesman.

Pension reform aims to replace the current system, which sees non-public employees paying into their own pensions while civil servants and staff of government-sponsored institutions enjoyed pensions without contributing anything.

"A major part of the increase in the basic salary is to set off the cost of the reforms," Li said, adding that the incomes of most of those affected would not be lowered after paying the premium.

Civil servant salaries in China generally consist of three parts: basic salary, additional allowances and merit pay.

The adjustment plan, which will see the first basic salary increase since 2006, also aims to optimize the salary structure by merging some additional allowances or merit payments into the basic salary, Li said.

The basic salary had constantly accounted for a decreasing proportion of civil servant's salaries since 2006, which Li said was unreasonable.

"A reasonable structure is where the basic salary is the main part," he said.

The government plans to freeze and standardize allowance increases while raising the basic salary.

Li stressed that local governments will not be allowed to raise allowance standards and related national policies must be strictly observed.

Nearly 8 million of the 40 million civil servants and government-sponsored institution employees work at the village or township level.

The salary changes will favor grassroots employees and increase their salaries by establishing a special allowance system.

The spokesman negated media reports that said the salaries of some civil servants had already been lifted due to the pension reform.

The synchronized reforms on the pension and salary systems cannot take effect until the on-going campaign to root out freeloaders ends, Li said.

The central authority launched a crackdown last month on freeloaders in Party and government organs and government-sponsored institutions.

Freeloaders refer to people who continue to collect wages without reporting for duty or make false claims for government funds. Endi