The income data of employees in all sectors in the last three decades suggested that the income gap between different industries was widening, especially after 2002. And such a gap is believed to be casting its shadow on economic growth.

This is the conclusion of a State-sponsored study on income policies, and researchers attributed the widened income gap to industrial upgradation and several other elements.

Gu Yan, a PhD degree holder with Renmin University of China and a participant in the study, pointed out that the average income of employees in the industries of electricity, gas and water was the highest across the society in 1978, which was about 2.17 times of that in social services, which was the lowest at that time.