Incomes of employees in profitable monopoly sectors who earn up to 10 times the national average should be capped to reduce the widening wealth gap, researchers at a leading think-tank urged yesterday.

The central government should do away with the right to profit redistribution at State-owned enterprises (SOEs), a team of experts affiliated to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security suggested.

"Capping their income, annulling profit redistribution rights and transparent auditing and supervision are a package of measures we have come up with," Liu Junsheng, a researcher with the ministry's Labour-Wage Institute, told China Daily.

"These measures could reduce the income gap between workers in monopoly sectors and average employees to a reasonable level."

He suggested that the gap should not be more than fivefold, but statistics show that the real income of people working in profitable sectors is 7-10 times higher than in other industries.

Bu Zhengfa, vice-labour minister, recently lashed out at the high salaries in the electricity, telecommunication, finance, insurance, tobacco and other monopoly industries.

The 169 major State-owned enterprises made a profit of 627.65 billion yuan (US$78.45 billion) last year, with the top 40 firms contributing 95 per cent and the top 12 accounting for 79 per cent.

At the 12 most profitable SOEs,  the average cost per head was about 70,000 yuan (US$8,700) in 2005; and the figure was about 123,000 yuan (US$15,400) at China Mobile, which had 112,000 employees in 2004.

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