• Residents of Shanghai, China's financial center, received an increase in their average salary since 2014.

Residents of Shanghai, China's financial center, received an increase in their average salary since 2014. (Photo : Reuters)

Citizens of Shanghai have been enjoying an increase in average salary since the past year, a recent Shanghai Social Sciences Academy survey shows. The results indicate that there was a 5,144 yuan ($820) per-month raise in contrast to 2013’s 5,036 yuan ($800) rate.

The recent salary study was based on an interview with a total of 2,010 respondents aged between 18 and 65.

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The survey showed that 20 percent have worked overtime for at least an hour every working day in 2014. Meanwhile, a large 70 percent remarked that they were satisfied with their jobs.

The highest salary-receiving group is the 30-39 age bracket, earning an average of 6,025.83 yuan ($960) per month. On the other end, those belonging to the age group 50-59 have earned the lowest, with a 4,291.95 yuan ($685) average monthly income.

Grabbing the top post in the highest-earning careers are the senior technical employees with an average monthly salary of 8,884 yuan ($1,400). They are followed by the self-employed (7,633 yuan/$1,200), enterprise administrative staff (7,114 yuan/$1,140), and government agencies and public institutions directors (6,355 yuan/$1,000).

The study further showed that general workers are the worst paid career group, with only a monthly salary average of 3,571 yuan ($570).

The academy's survey also showed that, on average, college graduates got a monthly compensation of 6,930.97 yuan ($1,100), a salary more than twice of those earned by employees with junior high school educational attainment or lower. Those in such bracket earned 3,408.74 yuan ($540).

Another relatively greater earner group is the bracket of employees in foreign-funded firms. A senior technical staff in such companies earn 11,053 yuan ($1,700), while doing the same job in non-foreign-funded business would only entail a 5,907 yuan ($940) salary.

Another fact revealed by the survey is that more than half of the respondents stated that they have received health examination once a year. However, a 22.8-percent portion of the respondents, mostly working for private entities, said that they did not have such health privileges.

Meanwhile, another more-than-50-percent part of the group said that they never got promotions in the previous year. A 57.9-percent statistic was recorded in private companies, showing that a number of privately employed Shanghai residents have been stuck in the same position since they were hired.