Recently, a set of income data released by the Department of Employment Income Distribution and Consumption of the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Institute of Income Distribution of Beijing Normal University has sparked heated discussions online. The focus of discussion is on the income of the Chinese people, with data showing that there are 964 million people with a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan and 600 million people with a monthly income of less than 1,090 yuan.
Nearly 1 billion people have a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan, in other words, a monthly income of more than 2,000 yuan can rank among the top 500 million in the country, that is, belong to the top third. I didn't expect that a monthly income of 2,000 yuan could become a relatively wealthy person, right?
Is the income situation of the Chinese people as stated on the Internet, or is it really as miserable as the data of the "Report" shows? Let's analyze it.
First, the title of this report is "China Income Distribution Annual Report 2021", which shows that it was released in 2021, and the income data used is from 2020, which is three years ago, and there is a serious lag in the data. In the past two days, some self-media have taken out the report from a few years ago to fry cold rice.
According to official data, the per capita disposable income of the mainland in the first three quarters of 2023 was 23.6% higher than that of the same period in 2020.
Second, even if we assume that the underlying income data three years ago has not changed much compared with now, is there really nearly 1 billion people whose monthly income is less than 2,000 yuan?
I don't know if you still remember that in 2020, a leader mentioned in his speech that "there are 600 million people in China with an income of less than 1,000 yuan", which is consistent with the 600 million people with a monthly income of less than 1,090 yuan mentioned in the report, indicating that the report is not a pat on the head, but a conclusion reached after investigation and research.
However, both the "income" mentioned by the leaders and the "income" quoted in the "report" are different from the traditional income statistics method, which refers to the per capita disposable income, not the average after-tax salary of workers, and there is a very obvious difference between the two.
The biggest difference between per capita disposable income and per capita after-tax wage is the number of people who are the denominator when calculating, the former includes minors without any income, "lying flats" and retirees with lower incomes, and the latter only includes working adults.
What does that mean? I'll give you an example.
Suppose Zhang San and his wife have a child, Zhang San's monthly salary after tax is 8,000 yuan, and his wife is 7,000 yuan.
The average after-tax monthly salary of Zhang San and his wife: (8000+7000)/2=7500 yuan
The monthly per capita disposable income of Zhang San's family: (8000 + 7000) / 3 = 5000 yuan
The monthly salary after tax is 50% higher than the per capita disposable income, and the difference is that everyone should be counted in the denominator when calculating the per capita disposable income, including the children who are not yet working.
Let's expand on the example a little more.
Assuming that Zhang San and his wife live with their parents, and the pensions of the two elderly people are 3,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan respectively, then the monthly per capita disposable income of Zhang San's family = (8,000 + 7,000 + 3,000 + 2,000)/5 = 4,000 yuan.
It is 1,000 yuan less than the 5,000 yuan calculated above, but the average monthly salary of the couple after tax has not changed, and it is still 7,500 yuan. If their pensions are very high, if they both exceed 10,000 yuan, then the monthly per capita disposable income will be higher than 5,000 yuan; on the contrary, if the old couple does not have a pension at all, then the monthly per capita disposable income of Zhang San's family will only be 3,000 yuan.
With the above content understood, let's take a look at the data in the report.
The 964 million people earning less than 2,000 yuan and the 964 million migrant workers earning less than 2,000 yuan a month are two very different concepts, and in fact there are not so many workers in China. According to the data of the seventh population census, there are 894 million people between the ages of 15 and 59 in China, and the total number of migrant workers is likely to be less than 750 million, or even less than 700 million, after deducting young people between the ages of 15 and 22 who have not yet graduated and joined the workforce, as well as female retirees between the ages of 50 and 59 (the legal retirement age for female employees in mainland enterprises is 50 years old).
The correct understanding should be that there are 964 million people with a per capita household income of less than 2,000 yuan, including people of all ages.
The situation of the two employees, who both earn 5,700 yuan a month, is completely different. For example, Zhang San belongs to one person who has enough to feed the whole family and does not have to worry, has no children and is not married, and receives 5,700 yuan per month, although he is not rich but his life is okay, and he is not in the range of 964 million people; Li Si is a family of three, he is the only one who works, and his monthly salary is 5,700 yuan, but the per capita income of the family is only 1,900 yuan, and the three family members are all included in the 964 million people.
To sum up, the real income of the Chinese people is not so miserable, and those who are less than 2,000 yuan include a large number of minors who do not work, rural retirees (pensions below 2,000 yuan), etc., which are all included in the calculation of average income.
In order to attract attention, some self-media deliberately confuse the monthly per capita disposable income of the family with the monthly salary of employees, or do not clearly point it out, so that people who lack statistical knowledge mistakenly think that the vast majority of people in the country have a monthly salary of less than 2,000 yuan.
Of course, there is still a big gap between our income level and that of economically developed countries, and in addition, the way of income distribution has led to a certain extent the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and these are the areas that need to be improved or reformed in the future.