Starting from a large amount of real data, we analyze the employee remuneration of China Unicom

China Unicom released its 2020 performance report in early March. The data shows that China Unicom achieved good operating results in 2020, and more importantly, it gradually established a relatively strong execution capability by relying on real rewards and real punishments and rewards and punishments. Whether it is operating performance or company execution, it is inseparable from the incentive effect of salary. Today, we will start with China Unicom's official data and study the salary and benefits of China Unicom employees in 2020.

1. Salaries and benefits will be significantly increased in 2020

China Unicom's 2020 financial report shows that as the company's operating performance improved and it increased the introduction of innovative talents, labor costs amounted to RMB 55.74 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%, an increase of RMB 5.22 billion, accounting for 18.35% of operating income and 20.21% of main business income, which is higher than China Telecom.

China Unicom's 2019 financial report shows that labor costs in 2019 were 50.52 billion yuan, an increase of 4.9% from 2018, an increase of 2.38 billion yuan, accounting for 17.39% of operating income and 19.11% of main business income, which is higher than China Telecom and far higher than China Mobile.

In 2020, the increase in China Unicom's labor costs has actually exceeded the increase in net profit. Data shows that China Unicom's net profit in 2020 reached 12.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%, an increase of about 1.2 billion yuan. From this point, it can be seen that the increase in China Unicom's labor costs is much greater than the increase in net profit.

Why has China Unicom's salary increased so much? According to media reports, China Unicom was rated A in the 2019 central enterprise performance assessment. As a result, the total salary issued by the regulatory authorities will naturally increase. In fact, not only the average salary of ordinary employees has increased, but also the total salary of its senior management has increased.

Some media specifically analyzed the remuneration of China Unicom executives, taking Chairman Wang Xiaochu as an example. Mr. Wang's pre-tax remuneration was 686,800 yuan in 2016, 713,300 yuan in 2019, and increased to 920,700 yuan in 2020. This example clearly shows that when everyone works together to achieve results, everyone will benefit.

2. Average salary and benefits have increased

According to data released in China Unicom's financial report, the number of its employees in 2020 was 242,121, a decrease of less than 1,700 from 243,790 in 2019. On the one hand, the labor cost increased significantly, and on the other hand, the total number of employees decreased. The two effects led to a significant increase in China Unicom's per capita salary in 2020.

After calculation, it is inferred that the average salary of China Unicom employees in 2020 is 230,200 yuan, a significant increase compared to 207,200 yuan in 2019. At present, we have not yet found the number of employees of China Telecom in 2020. If calculated based on last year's employees, the average salary is 232,200 yuan.

China Unicom's overall strength not only lags behind China Telecom, but is also far behind China Mobile. However, in terms of salary and benefits alone, for China Unicom employees who are at the low end of the average salary range, regardless of their true feelings, data shows that their sense of happiness in 2020 has greatly increased.

We are only analyzing based on the average here, which may not be accurate enough. After all, there are huge differences between the grassroots and the headquarters, and between economically developed and underdeveloped regions. Even in the same region, different county branches will have large differences in salary and benefits due to differences in performance.

3. Labor outsourcing hours have been greatly reduced

According to data released by China Unicom's financial report, the total amount of remuneration paid for outsourcing labor in 2020 and 2019 was 6936.52 million yuan and 1466.62 million yuan respectively, and the total number of outsourcing labor hours was 311740488 and 26552275 respectively. It is known that China Unicom's labor hourly fees in 2020 and 2019 were 22.25 yuan and 55.24 yuan respectively.

China Unicom's annual financial report does not clearly state which projects are included in the labor outsourcing support. We only know from the relevant public data that its labor costs have dropped sharply in 2020. We are not sure about the specific reasons for this decline. We hope that it is due to errors in the data aggregation, although this possibility is too small.

Public reports in 2020 showed that China Unicom had "layoffs" in many places, and several self-media outlets posted banners of protests by migrant workers. Although we are not sure about the authenticity of this layoff news, the disguised layoff operation by significantly reducing labor costs is a common practice for companies that use a large number of outsourced employees.

4. In addition to labor costs, there are additional benefits

After review and approval by China Unicom's Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee, the first unlocking period of the company's restricted stock incentive plan was unlocked and listed on April 9, 2020. Although only a very small number of employees enjoy stock options, they can get this extra income in addition to normal labor costs, which naturally makes them feel happy.

How much can people who are granted stock options earn? This is information that many people, including China Unicom employees, want to know. China Unicom's public information shows that the subscription price of China Unicom's incentive targets is RMB 3.79 per share. You can calculate the earnings based on China Unicom's stock trend in 2020.

In fact, don't envy others, big benefits are coming again. China Unicom announced that it plans to use no less than RMB 1.25 billion and no more than RMB 2.5 billion of its own funds through centralized bidding transactions to repurchase the company's A shares at a price not exceeding RMB 6.5 per share, which will be used to implement the equity incentive plan in the future.

China Unicom's surge in salary and benefits in 2020 has allowed it to directly catch up with China Telecom, which has the highest average salary. In addition, China Unicom's current performance trend indicates that its salary and benefits will most likely increase significantly in 2021. After the scale of the salary and benefits plate has expanded, although not all employees of China Unicom will benefit, for those employees who have not been able to share the company's development results, the reasons should be found from multiple aspects.