Salary indication
We are a trading company and want to hire a Chinese person to do business for us in China. She is 25 years old and lives in Yiwu. She has to find potential suppliers for us and guide the total prices, supervised by us.
Can you indicate the salary per month/day/hour we have to pay her?
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May 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
25 years old , merchandising. Range of RMB 3,500- $6,000 per month, plus expenses.
You can then structure this with by paying part on fixed salary and part with incentives (# of inquiries , $ value of good shipped). typically will be on a 13th month base . The other incentive for her is if you are paying this to her and she pays taxes on it, or , she is just being paid cash, no taxes. Finally , if you pay her health insurance, or any housing.
If you were a Chinese company, hiring a local merchandiser, a typical RMB5,000 base salary could , when all of the benefits, etc., are added on , cost you as much as an additional 35%.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:43 am
As in the west, the salary will depend on experience. I think the estimate given by Paul Tittman is quite accurate in case of a relatively inexperienced person with a bachelor/master degree. Without bachelor/master education, but with descent English, my feeling is that 2000RMB-3000RMB/month should be enough. In case your candidate worked in the industry you are interested in, or even better; held a medium management position in a (relevant and large) Chinese company before see joins you, 10000 - 20000 rmb is more reasonable, assuming she works full time for you. High level management experience is probably not required for the function you describe. A previous management position is not only helpful because of experience, but it also enabled the person to build up an extensive network in the industry, which can solve problems very effectively.
Be aware that, despite the seemingly humbleness associated with Chinese culture, many will ‘upgrade’ their job title/performance of previous years, so a check with previous employer might be useful.
In case the assignment does not require full-time work, things get cheaper of course. Mind you that the same amount of work might lead to full-time work for an inexperienced person, while an experienced person might do the same task in a few days. My wife is a purchaser and knows other purchasers also. If you want I can try to find a person that has experience in the field of your interest, although I can’t promise anything. You can mail me on; maarten.brand@hotmail.com
May 26th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Paul and Tim,
Thanks for you answers to my question. your answers give me a good indication of the salary we can pay her. She does not need the have management skills, most important is that she knows our (western)needs and can translate for us. If you have more tips how to handle with Chinese employees like monitoring,rewards and other important things I would be very thankfull.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
If she is sutiable for you in term of her working experience and capability, then I suggest you also need to know what is her personnel style, say very aggresive, just working, passive … this might help you to formulate the coming award guildline in order motivate her to achieve the goals.
By the way, monitoring is very important, whatever you use any tools to monitor her, you have to visit her by person on site some time, make sure she is working for you.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Seems all the above comments are reasonable. One point I do have to add. Legally, there is no basis for you, a foreign company, to employee a Chinese staff member in China. Of course you can still do so in practice - as long as you are willing to take the (limited) risk.
May 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
As elsewhere, there is a big difference between “hiring” someone as an independent representative (contract) and hiring someone as an employee. You should check the latest China regulations for contract terms and employee status. Recent changes could create problems for you and for your prospective “employee.”
Yiwu is a very small city in central Zhejiang; famous in China as a commodities center. Does someone based in this location provide the market access you require?
For Hangzhou (nearest city)
Purchasing Contracting Clerk Annual RMB
Low 42,698 Mid 62,561 High 78,996
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