Year-end bonuses vary for Chinese white-collar workers in 2019: survey

With the Spring Festival approaching, Chinese companies are rolling out year-end bonuses for their staff. Hammers, condoms and expired calendars are among the weirdest year-end bonuses, according to a new survey.

The hammer is designated as a year-end bonus to encourage the employees to confront difficulties in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. /Weibo Photo

The survey, conducted by Zhilian Zhaopin, China's equivalent of LinkedIn, showed only 33.3 percent of the respondents have received their bonuses for 2019, compared with 55.17 percent in 2018 and 66.1 percent in 2017.

Shanghai tops the list as the city where the white-collar workers get the highest average year-end bonus. /Photo via Zhilian Zhaopin

The average year-end bonus for white-collar workers reached 9,547 yuan (about 1,406 U.S. dollars) in 2019, lifting over 2,400 yuan from that in 2018.

In the survey, 15.3 percent of white-collar workers said they were "not sure" about their annual reward, and 40 percent were sure that they would not get it this year, twice as much as that of last year.

White-collar workers in Shanghai got the highest average year-end bonus at 13,275 yuan (about 1,935 U.S. dollars), followed by 12,830 in Beijing and 12,604 in Qingdao.

A pharmaceutical company in northeast China's Shenyang City gives away cash to reward their employees. /Photo via China Securities Journal

Cash is still the most-expected form of year-end bonus for white-collar workers, followed by big items like houses, cars and stock options.

In terms of occupations, white-collar workers in the finance industry had the highest average bonus at 14,293 yuan (about 2,083 U.S. dollars), followed by 11, 685 yuan for Real Estate & Construction. Employees working in the service industry had the lowest average year-end bonus of 5,807 yuan.

The top spot was occupied by those working in the legal sector with an average year-end bonus amount of 14,833 yuan (about 2,162 U.S. dollars).

After receiving the year-end bonuses, many of those surveyed like to save the money, while treating the elders comes as the second choice, and paying for the loan is third.

The survey says that bonuses are considered as an important factor in job selection, as 38 percent of white-collar workers say they would jump ship because of a bad year-end bonus.

Photo circulating online shows iPhone 11 sets at a company's office. /Weibo Photo

While many people complained on social media that they were given nothing for year-end bonuses, some tech giants in China offer substantial bonuses.

Momo, a dating and live-streaming platform, gave each employee an iPhone 11 with 256GB storage this year, which has a market value of 6,799 yuan (about 991 U.S. dollars).