By Ma Lei, Research Team on “Survey on People’s Livelihood in China”, DRC

Research Report, Special Issue, No.36, 2018 (Total 1603) 2018-9-7

Abstract: Based on the household survey data from 2014 and 2017 of DRC’s “Survey on People’s Livelihood in China”, this report systematically analyzes the influencing factors for the difference in domestic labor income in recent years. It is found that: human capital is an important factor in determining labor income, and the return on education in rural areas is higher than that in urban areas; the place of residence and the household registration identity have a significant impact on labor income, but when the employment characteristics of labors were held constant, the impact of the two has dropped significantly; there is a remarkable phenomenon of inter-generational transmission in labor income, and the degree in rural areas is higher than that in urban areas; gender discrimination, marriage, health, enterprise ownership, monopoly, employment stability and regional difference are still the factors causing the differences in labor income. Therefore, effective ways to increase workers’ income and narrow the gap of labor income in the future are to improve the equality of educational opportunity, raise workers’ educational level, further remove the barriers to labor mobility between urban and rural areas and establish and implement a fair employment system.

Key words: labor income difference, return on education, inter-generational transmission, employment discrimination