Chinese Company Executive Salaries Outpace Profits

    Among 80 listed companies that had released their full-year earnings reports as of Feb. 24, annual management incomes rose 43.8 percent year-on-year to 2.93 million yuan (418,570 U.S. dollars) on average in 2008, while net profits of these companies only increased 18.48 percent to 142 million yuan, reported Thursday's China Daily, quoting Wind Information.

    Altogether 1,009 companies that had their annual or preliminary financial reports released by Feb. 25 posted an average profit decline of 43.61 percent to 173.6 billion yuan for 2008.

    Top-level managers in the sagging real estate industry earned the most, with salaries at 13 property developers more than doubling last year. In contrast, the average net profit of these companies rose just 58 percent from a year ago to 401 million yuan.