Revealing the secret of General Hong Xuezhi: The salary of the military years
In the early sixties of the last century, General Hong Xuezhi moved to the local government and served as the director of the department. Although his position has been reduced, his salary level has not been significantly affected, but he has been the highest-paid official in Jilin for more than ten years. What is the design of the compensation system behind all this?
This story involves a huge change in the mainland salary system in the fifties and sixties of the last century. General Hong Xuezhi's salary process has become a microcosm, showing the unique style of military and local salaries at that time.
First of all, we need to understand the remuneration system in the 50s and early 60s of the last century. At that time, the pay scales for military and local officials were different. Army generals are graded according to their rank in 1952, while local officials are graded according to their administrative rank. Until 1965, with the abolition of the military rank system and the reform of the salary system, the ranks of the army were merged with the ranks of local administrative cadres to create 23 grades.
This has led to a phenomenon in which the ranks of military generals and local officials are no longer uniform. General Hong Xuezhi was downgraded to level 6 in this system adjustment, but he is still the highest-paid official in Jilin Province. What's going on here?
In that particular historical period, the rank and treatment of military generals and local officials were decoupled from their positions. That is, there is an increasing difference in the positions and ranks of officials. This continued until 1979, when the army underwent a comprehensive pay reform and a pay system was introduced according to the rank of the army. This reform has solved the problem of the remuneration of officials, and the remuneration has been increased accordingly according to the promotion of military ranks.
Looking back on General Hong Xuezhi's salary process, we seem to have seen a long scroll of history in the military years. His experience is not only a portrayal of the fate of the individual, but also a mirror of the evolution of the Continental Army's salary system. This history tells us that behind the compensation system lies the change of the social system, and it also makes us think about fairness and reasonableness in contemporary compensation design.