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How much do you make?
What pay day looks like at Marketplace's Shanghai office. The pink bill is 100 RMB, about US$15.
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"So how much do you make?"
That's the fastest way to kill a conversation with Americans. But in China, it's the gateway to someone's personal history, says Rob Schmitz, Marketplace's Shanghai bureau chief. The Chinese openly discuss their incomes and spending habits with each other, unlike Americans who see finance in the same realm as sex, religion and politics. Their openness may stem from the fact that at least for some time, nearly all Chinese were making the same amount. But this attitude is shifting, as the poor-rich gap in China widens. Schmitz says more people decline to answer his questions about financial histories.
Schmitz also points out another interesting facet of the Chinese and their finances. Because the highest bill denomination is 100 RMB, or about US$15, people keep huge stockpiles of paper money at their homes. People making large purchases, like a car, will bring in suitcases of cash to the dealership. Schmitz says he looks like a drug dealer on payday at the bureau office -- piles of cash are spread out on the table and then doled out.
Glass Door is a web site that surveys salaries at various companies based on data from its members. Of course, each member remains anonymous but with enough of your colleagues sending in data, you get to build a profile of your firm and where you stand in terms of compensation. A HR nightmare! :)
Most of the companies on Glass Door are larger ones, but people who work at startups can get a handle on how much of a discount they are working at, to be made up (and then some) when their company becomes successful.
I grew up in a Chinese family but I moved to the US about 15 years ago. Several years ago when my grandmother was able to visit the US, she greeted me with "how much do you make now?". I felt a bit offended by her question. I think it is not a big secret of how much I make but without any help from my parents or relative, I learn to save money and be financially independent. I do not want to help my relatives who do not want to help themselves first. That was why I didn't want to disclose how much I made.
I was listening to your conversation with Rob and I have a very different twist. As a public employee, what I make is public. Anyone can go to to my HR department and ask what I make and they are required by law to tell them. Having worked in the private sector for 20 years this took some getting used to but now I almost don't understand what the big secret is about what people make. I think the Chinese might have something in freely discussing money.
Bob Bell
