China's annual salary gap ratio between different industries was renewed to 4.2 :1 in 2010, People's Daily reported on Friday.

China's new salary system under the market-direct economy has been established, but the wage gap is widening too fast, Yang Liming, vice-director of the labor and salary research institute of China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said in a report.

The statistics indicate the finance industry had the highest annual salary of 70,146 yuan in 2010 ($10,430), while the lowest was in the farming industry with an annual salary of 16,717 yuan. The gap ratio is 4.2:1, while the average ratio in most countries is between 1.5:1 and 2.1:1.

There is also a staggering difference between people's pay in cities, rich regions and top posts.

For example, in Shanghai, people working in banks had an average annual income of 357,500 yuan in 2010, tens times that of the average urban worker in China. .

The report also shows rural families had an average income of 5,919 yuan in 2010, compared with 19,109 yuan at urban level.

The region where workers were best paid in 2010 was Shanghai, with an average level of 66,115 yuan, while the lowest paid received was in Heilongjiang province with 27,735 yuan.

Managers at listed companies earned on average 668,000 yuan in 2010, 18 times that of the average annual salary in China.

Shen Yuan, a junior stock business consultant in Beijing said "only mangers get fat pay, I don't think I earn that much than people of other industries, maybe a little more."