China's Xi gets 62 per cent pay rise: report

Chinese President Xi Jinping and the other six members of the Communist Party's elite Politburo Standing Committee have been given 62 per cent pay rises, state-run media said today, as civil servants get their first increases since 2006.
Xi's basic monthly pay will go up to 11,385 yuan (USD 1,832) from 7,020 yuan, the China Daily said, citing announcements by the ministry of human resources and social security.
Despite leading the world's second-largest economy, Xi's pay falls far short of US President Barack Obama, who earns USD 400,000 a year.
At the bottom of China's scale, the lowest-ranked civil servants have seen their pay more than double to 1,320 yuan.

Increasing numbers of officials are quitting over low compensation, the paper said, but it pointed out that basic salaries make up just one component of civil servants' monthly compensation.
Additional allowances are also provided based on their positions and duties, it said, though it did not provide breakdowns or amounts.

Civil service work in China has long offered both prestige and official perks, as well as opportunities to accrue extra wealth through the receipt of bribes and other forms of corruption.
Since becoming party chief in November 2012 and state president in March 2013, Xi has spearheaded a crackdown on corruption within the party and government that has seen low-ranking "flies" and once high-flying "tigers" brought down.

Relatives of top leaders including Xi and former premier Wen Jiabao have used offshore tax havens to hide their wealth, according to a mammoth investigation released in January last year by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
In 2012 The New York Times and Bloomberg News published investigations into vast wealth said to have been amassed by family members of Wen and Xi. Neither official was accused of wrongdoing.
India's government said in 2013 that its then-premier Manmohan Singh was earning around 160,000 rupees (USD 2,600) a month in salary and allowances -- as well as a personal staff, rent-free housing, a plane and an official vehicle.