In the 1990s, the income distribution of urban residents in China generally met the needs of the development of market economy, and the distribution of different income groups showed the shape of "big in the middle, small at the bottom and big at the top", which basically reflected that the market mechanism played a fundamental regulatory role. The highly centralized and unified distribution system of planned economy has been broken, and the Gini coefficient calculated according to the statistical data of statistical yearbook to describe the income and consumption gap of urban residents is moderate. From this perspective, the income distribution of most people is basically reasonable; The distribution is inclined to high-tech industries and emerging industries, and the income of mental workers, workers in technology-intensive fields and workers in capital-intensive industries is growing rapidly; People's living standards are improving at an unprecedented speed, and the income distribution of urban residents strongly supports the sustained, rapid and healthy economic and social development of China. However, there are still many bad phenomena and problems in the income distribution of urban residents, such as the tendency of equalitarianism in the system is still serious, at the same time, the extra-wage income of many units is out of control, the monopoly distribution of a few industries is unfair, the phenomenon of getting rich from illegal income occurs from time to time, and the income distribution gap between some regions, industries, enterprises and groups is too large, and so on. Although these phenomena and problems are partial, they have had a bad influence on the whole society and should be solved as soon as possible.
(A) the income distribution of urban residents reflects the objective law of the development of the socialist market economy.
1. The income level of urban residents in China has increased rapidly.
During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the average annual disposable income of urban households in China increased by 5.7%. According to China Statistical Yearbook, during the nine years from 1990 to 1999, the average annual disposable income of urban households increased by 16.25%, and the average annual salary of employees increased by 16. The average annual growth of urban residents' consumption expenditure is 15.33%. After deducting the price factor, the average annual real growth rates of the three are 8.76%, 8.84% and 7.90% respectively.
2. The distribution of different income groups of urban residents conforms to the direction of marketization.
According to the "Xu Zhenbin Distribution Curve" that we first introduced to describe the probability distribution of different income groups, according to the income gap of five equal parts, we can calculate 1999, and the national urban low-income households (the annual per capita income of each household ranges from 2,357 yuan to 43 15 yuan) account for 3 1.79%. Lower-middle income households (annual per capita income of 43 16 yuan to 6273 yuan) account for 32.36%, middle income households (annual per capita income of 6274 yuan to 823 1 yuan) account for 19.67%, and upper-middle income households (annual per capita income of 8232 yuan to 65438+).
By the way, according to the above conclusions, we can't agree with the dumbbell-shaped statement that the income distribution of urban residents in China is "big at both ends and small in the middle" drawn by some scholars at present.
3. On the whole, the egalitarian distribution is gradually being broken, and the "brain-body upside down" is moving towards "brain-body upside down"
First, the overall income gap has widened reasonably. According to the statistical data of China Statistical Yearbook, the Gini coefficient of urban residents' income in 1994 is only 0.2754, which tends to be average. It rose to 0.30 1999, which was relatively mild.
In addition, judging from the Gini coefficient of urban residents' consumption expenditure, 1994 is only 0.2089, which is too average, indicating that most people eat, wear, live, use and travel in a unified pattern; 1999 is 0.27 14, which is somewhat enlarged, but still tends to be average. Of course, it must be pointed out that the conclusion here will be different from people's actual feelings and the actual Gini coefficient. The main reason is that there may be statistics in the statistical yearbook, such as illegal income, which is difficult to investigate and count, and the actual income gap caused by it cannot be included in the above Gini coefficient. If these factors are taken into account, the Gini coefficient will increase a little, which is estimated to be generally within 0.4. Even so, considering the imbalance of regional economic development in China, especially China is still in the transitional stage from a dual economic system to a market economy, it is normal that the Gini coefficient of urban residents in China is higher than that in developed countries with market economy, and the theory of 0.4 warning line cannot be simply copied.
Second, during the Eighth Five-Year Plan and the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the income distribution among industries in China was greatly adjusted, and the distribution began to tilt towards high-tech industries and emerging industries. The income of traditional manual labor, low capital content, labor-intensive and fully competitive industries is relatively reduced. The most typical industries, such as extractive industries, rank first among all industries from 1990, and third from the bottom from 1999. The wages of employees in high-tech industries and emerging industries are increasing substantially. The most typical example is financial insurance, which ranks fourth from the bottom of all industries from 1990 to 1999. Other industries and departments, such as scientific research and comprehensive technical services, real estate, health, sports and social welfare, state organs, political parties, social organizations, the production and supply of electricity, gas and water, colleges and universities, business brokers and intermediaries, etc., have the highest wage growth rate. The income of mental workers, workers in technology-intensive fields and workers in capital-intensive industries is increasing rapidly.
4. The property income of urban residents increased rapidly.
From 1990 to 1999, the average annual growth rate of per capita property income of urban residents in China was 26.42%, which was10.9 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate of per capita total income of urban residents in the same period. It shows that the participation of capital and other factors in distribution has increased.
5. The income of employees in state-owned units grew strongly.
During the Eighth Five-Year Plan and the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the wage growth of state-owned units, urban collective units and other units in China basically showed a positive proportional linear growth momentum. Among them, the wages of state-owned units grew the fastest. Compared with 1990, the average wage of state-owned units increased by 2.74 times, especially from 1996 to 1999. On the other hand, from the perspective of absolute wage growth, the wage level of other units has always been the highest, followed by state-owned units and urban collective units.
6. The role of transfer payment in income distribution is enhanced.
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to the work of "two guarantees", intensified the structural adjustment of fiscal expenditure, and made great efforts to increase the input of social security. 1during the three years from 1998 to 2000, the subsidies from the central government to the social security fund were 9.6 billion yuan, 25.7 billion yuan and 47.8 billion yuan respectively. 200 1, it is expected that the financial support will be further increased. Financial support for social insurance at all levels is unprecedented. 1999, the number of urban residents in China was 2.659 million, while 1998, the total number of urban and rural residents in China was only 184. 1000. 1990 retirement expenses (excluding medical and health expenses of retired workers) was 39.62 billion yuan, and 1999 was 242.09 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 22.28%, which was 2.73 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate of GDP of secondary and tertiary industries in the same period. 1996, the national social welfare relief expenditure was 411900 million yuan, and 1999 was 8.025 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 24.90%, which was 17.23 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate of GDP of the secondary and tertiary industries in the same period. The annual per capita transfer income of urban residents in China increased from 250.0 1 yuan in 1990 to 1257. 17 yuan in 1999, with an average annual increase of 19.66%, which was higher than the annual per capita total income of urban residents in the same period.
7. Urban residents' income growth is in harmony with macroeconomic development.
During the period of 1990- 1999, the GDP of the secondary and tertiary industries of urban residents, the annual disposable income of urban households and the average monetary wage of employees in China increased by 16.23%, 16.25% and16.33 respectively.
(2) There are still outstanding problems and contradictions in the income distribution of urban residents.
1. In the income distribution of urban residents, two extreme phenomena coexist: "egalitarian distribution" within the system and "excessive income gap" outside the system.
Since the reform and opening up, as analyzed above, although the income gap between urban residents has widened and the average distribution situation has improved on the whole, "egalitarianism" has not been completely eradicated, mainly in the distribution of wage income (excluding wage income), and the wage income distribution gap of most state-owned enterprises, institutions and mass organizations is small. According to the survey, compared with the minimum standard, the maximum basic salary of many enterprises is only about 3 times; The maximum wage of government agencies and units is only 4.28 times of the minimum wage (excluding seniority wage); Compared with the minimum standard, the maximum basic salary of public institutions is only 2.8 1 times (excluding seniority salary). The income distribution gap according to administrative posts is too small, and the income distribution gap according to technical posts (technical elements) is even smaller. Equalization in wage distribution is also one of the important incentives for income out of control.
There is a phenomenon of "excessive income gap" in the income distribution other than wages (because this income gap is difficult to be truly and comprehensively shown in the statistical yearbook, and these gaps were basically not included in our previous calculation and analysis of the distribution of different income groups and Gini coefficient, so we investigate this income gap separately, instead of mixing it with all aspects of income distribution with statistical data. Here we might as well call it "excessive non-statistical income gap". Extra-wage income, monopoly income and illegal income are the main reasons for the excessive income distribution gap. Judging from the income distribution gap with statistical data, the income gap between the highest income earners and the lowest income earners is expanding at a rate of 3. 10% per year; The consumption expenditure of the highest income earners and the consumption expenditure of the lowest income earners are expanding at an annual growth rate of 1.8 1%; According to the change of Gini coefficient of income distribution, wealth is concentrated to a few rich people with an average annual growth rate of 1.83%.
We only take housing distribution as an example to illustrate the problem of "excessive income gap". According to the analysis of the statistical data of per capita area of residents in a city, the Gini coefficient reflecting the difference of housing area in this city is 0.2927, which belongs to the middle range. However, if the differential rent and other factors are considered, the Gini coefficient calculated according to the real estate price is 0.707 1, which is quite different (see Table 2).
The income gap caused by irregular income distribution is too large, which is unreasonable and even illegal. It has aroused great concern from all walks of life and brought serious negative effects to society, and measures should be taken to solve it. Of course, the "excessive income gap" also has its reasonable factors and inevitable objective factors. First, senior management talents, high-tech talents and capital are scarce elements. Under the basic adjustment of the market mechanism, the owners of human capital, technical factors and capital get rich first through their own labor and investment. Second, in the income distribution outside wages, because the income within the system is too average, it should be said that there is a reasonable component in the larger gap outside the system (that is, there is a part of labor remuneration outside the system, which belongs to the reasonable income part that should be included in the system but not included; Other income outside the system can be divided into reasonable factor income and unreasonable or illegal income, and can also be divided into gray income and black income. Third, due to the surplus of ordinary labor in cities and towns in China, the income of low-income groups has been suppressed. Positive and negative effects will also widen the income distribution gap of urban residents. The reasonable components of "excessive income gap" should be brought into the system to solve; Other unreasonable and illegal income should be restricted, cancelled or even cracked down.
The problem of unreasonable high income in monopoly industries is still outstanding. Due to the monopoly position of some industries, in 1999, according to 16 major industries, the highest wage level of employees is 2.45 times the lowest; By industry breakdown, the wage level of employees in the highest-paid industry is 4.50 times that of employees in the lowest-paid industry. 1994, the multiple relationship between the average wage of employees in monopoly industries and the average wage of employees in the whole society is between 1.36 times and 2. 12 times; To 1999, it has risen to 1.38 times to 2.36 times, and the gap is widening (see table 3). This does not include income outside the system. If the income outside the system is added, the gap will be even greater. The income level and growth rate of urban residents and workers in the central and some western regions have long been "double low" in the country, which has led to the widening income gap between regions. Among them, the provinces with prominent "double low" phenomenon are Henan, Shanxi and Hebei, which is worrying. The development of the western region has injected new vitality into the western economy and the income growth of urban residents (including rural residents), but we can't ignore the central region, otherwise it will drag down the national economic development.
Whether the distribution is too even or the income gap is too large, it is a manifestation of unfair distribution. It is a distortion of the distribution mode and labor value of the socialist market economy.
2. The income distribution behavior is not standardized.
First, the payment of wages is not standardized; Second, the wage extraction is not standardized. In enterprises that implement work efficiency linkage, it is more common to extract wages outside the plan and base. Third, some enterprises set up supplementary old-age insurance to exceed the standard cost of 4% of total wages, increasing income in disguise; Fourth, the job consumption of enterprise managers is arbitrary and lacks reasonable and moderate constraints; Fifth, there is no standardized system for income-generating activities of public institutions, and the distribution behavior is not standardized and the transparency is low.
3. The overall income distribution structure is still unreasonable.
First, the wage income structure is unreasonable, the wages in the system are low, the labor remuneration outside the system is high, and there are many items that are not included in the salary; Second, the proportion of income distributed according to various factors is not large, which is still far from the central government's requirement of "allowing and encouraging capital, technology and other factors to participate in income distribution". From 1990 to 1999, the proportion of urban residents' annual per capita wage income in the total per capita annual income did not decrease, but increased by 0.56 percentage points. Although this can be attributed to the fact that welfare wages have played a role in resisting the relative decline in the proportion of wages in recent years, it can also be seen that the distribution of urban residents in China according to various factors is far from being really adjusted. The proportion of other factors participating in the distribution needs to be further improved (income outside the system, unreasonable income and illegal income other than statistical data have not been considered here, and will be solved as another kind of problem).
4. The distribution pattern of different income groups is not ideal, and low-income groups account for a large proportion.
In the distribution of different income groups, middle-income and upper-middle-income groups are relatively few, accounting for only 28.62% of the total number; Because the few highest-income groups whose income level has increased rapidly have relatively depressed other income groups, the low-income and middle-low-income groups are relatively too large, accounting for 64. 15% of the total population. This distribution structure of different income groups is easy to cause psychological imbalance of widening income gap (because there are many low-and middle-income people and the lowest-income people with little income gap within the group, and there are few upper-middle-income people, so low-income people tend to concentrate on the highest income earners. Psychologically speaking, when these low-income people look up and compare, they see the highest income earners, but ignore the transitional income groups between them and the highest income earners, causing great psychological contrast. The unreasonable distribution of different income groups is the primary contradiction that needs to be solved in China's current income distribution problem.