Workers in Beijing's property sector enjoyed an average pay rise of 11.9 percent last year, the highest in China, beating their peers in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, says an industry report.

Property salespersons, interior decoration designers and marketing staff in the real estate sector were the highest paid. The average annual income of a design manager was 200,000 yuan (US$25,641), said the 2006 China Salary Report by TaiHe Consulting, a market survey company.

The survey covered more than 100 industries ,including property, finance, pharmaceuticals, the technology and service sectors, and collected 130,000 responses.

The report said the salaries of people with Beijing's high-tech industry also show strong growth.

Rank-and-file employees from Beijing's high-tech companies earned less than those in Shanghai and Guangzhou, but executives raked in an average annual package of 600,000 yuan, about 100,000 yuan more than their counterparts in the south.

The report attributed the disparity to the capital's abundant education and research and development resources, including the prestigious Peking and Tsinghua Universities and the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park.

It said the average Chinese pay rise was 8.1 percent last year, but the salary level in the telecommunications sector changed little. Executives in telecommunications companies earned half a million yuan on average, basically the same as the previous year.

People working in the rapidly growing consumer goods industry tended to earn more as an increasing number of international retail giants moved into Beijing.

Financial institutions, pharmaceutical firms and hospitals also saw rising pay levels last year, with the annual growth rate ranging from 5 percent to 11 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2007)