# What is a "good" salary in Beijing



## gflyons

Hi all,

I am trying to find out what would be considered an "average" , "good" , and "oh-my-God-I'm-loaded!!"  salary in Beijing. It's for a Chinese-national senior professional IT-type job in the oil/gas industry.

Yes, I know this is a really difficult question to answer, so there are no wrong answers, any input (and caveats) happily accepted.

Cheers and TIA.


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## expatseek

For a Chinese-national senior IT job, a good salary might be around the 15,000RMB/month range. A foreigner with the same position, to be considered a 'good' salary. would need to command more than double that, plus living allowances, which would at minimum triple it... and that would not be a high-paying 'expat' style salary in Beijing.


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## gflyons

Hi, thanks, that's really helpful. That's only about £20K/year, which is surprisingly low. I assume the cost of living must be proportionately lower.

So an "OMG" salary would be, say, £35K/year? I.e. about RNB27,000/month?


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## jamesmejia

One of My friend working there and he is getting around 13,000RMB/month.. i think its not that bad.. what you think?


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## expatseek

gflyons said:


> Hi, thanks, that's really helpful. That's only about £20K/year, which is surprisingly low. I assume the cost of living must be proportionately lower.
> 
> So an "OMG" salary would be, say, £35K/year? I.e. about RNB27,000/month?



I hope I wasn't confused. The Chinese-national salary is for a Chinese national, a Chinese person. 

An OMG salary for a Chinese person in said position would be about what you said. None of these apply for expats, remember. It is different if you are posted to China as an IT professional.


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## cschrd2

Really complicated to say as it even differs per industry. In it security you easily speak 15K/month for a good IT guy and 25K/month for a team manager (5-7 people). Salaries in educated roles for local have quite inflated over the last couple of years and looking at real experts we see no difference between expat and local hire apart from children's tuition fees (that are for int school just ridiculous).


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## expatseek

No argument from us that international school fees in China are absurd.


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## dvdlin

I remembered I had a talk with headhunter in 2006 for an Unix system admin position in an us Internet auction company. He mentioned that annual cannot over rmb 300k in Shanghai . Now I'm also talk to another agency, still in the 400k to 500k range. Don't exactly know till see the offering letter in writing.


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## juggalos1stxmas

I'm not in IT but I'm making 11,000rmb with housing and am really comfortable


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## Lanky0

around 15,000-20,000 depending on experience (for chinese national)


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## Synthesis

anywhere from 8,000 (no experience, young, no Chinese language skills) to 100,000 (10 years work experience in China, speaks Chinese, age 30 to 40) is possible.


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## akclau

if the company goes through the trouble of expatriating you to china, or hiring you from overseas, that means you have some very valuable skills. it's a "senior" position. You should make no less than RMB20K, and possibly much more.


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## Cassiopia

If you are being headhunted, ask anything above your current salary (up to 30%) plus full expat packages to test the water. Just don't sell short.

Good luck!


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## Jon Kraken

Cassiopia said:


> If you are being headhunted, ask anything above your current salary (up to 30%) plus full expat packages to test the water. Just don't sell short.
> 
> Good luck!


That's an interesting sharp answer!


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## Sonny.1sthome

Totally agree with cassiopia, if you're being head-hunted (or needed), raise your "price"


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## Eric in china

Olivia Ogilvy said:


> What if you are not head-hunted ? I think you still can "test the water" to ask (plead) whatever is reasonable benefit or compensation, an effort to "raise" your price.


You do not understand Chinese people, especially business people.


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## Eric in china

Sonny.1sthome said:


> Totally agree with cassiopia, if you're being head-hunted (or needed), raise your "price"


If you are "head hunted" by Chinese then you will have a somewhat smaller head before the contract is done, and do not trust anything written in said contract.


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## TheGuardan

Eric in china said:


> You do not understand Chinese people, especially business people.


ask for the universe and see what you can get. They will be better negotiators on price than you. It's the culture.


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