SOE regulators tells firms no pay raises without higher profit targets

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has told the companies it supervises that they cannot raise their employee salary budgets if their profit targets for this year are set lower than last year’s, Caixin reported, citing an annual notice from the regulator. The SASAC notice is aimed at the pay of all SOE employees, including executives. The practice of linking executive pay to a firm’s profits is popular at private firms, but is so weakly enforced at many SOEs that their executives are paid handsomely regardless of company performance.