Bank "working people" salary revealed! These three types of positions are undergoing concentrated adjustments

Listed banks’ annual reports are disclosed only partway through.

As of now, among 57 A-share and H-share banks, 37 have already released their annual performance announcements, and employee compensation has been exposed accordingly.

A reporter from China Securities Journal reviewed data from 37 listed banks that are complete and comparable (including 6 state-owned big banks, 10 joint-stock banks, 15 city commercial banks, and 6 rural commercial banks), and found that labor cost spending for listed banks has generally increased.

Meanwhile, last year the 37 banks together added more than 6,500 employees. New hires continued to be concentrated mainly in areas such as business marketing and information technology. Employee groups whose positions are less advantageous in terms of teller roles and educational background continued to be optimized.

In terms of average compensation per employee, joint-stock banks with more flexible mechanisms, a higher degree of marketization, and branch networks concentrated in developed cities remain at the top. However, Zhejiang Commercial Bank and Everbright Bank saw relatively large declines in compensation.

In terms of absolute scale, China CITIC Bank’s average compensation per employee continued to inch up to more than 600,000 yuan, keeping its No. 1 position. Luzhou Bank and China Merchants Bank followed closely; among them, CMB’s average compensation per employee has declined for four consecutive years.

Joint-stock banks’ compensation overall is moving downward

As it is understood, bank employees’ compensation mainly appears in the “Employee Expenses” line under the “Business and Administrative Expenses” category in the income statement. Some banks also refer to it as “labor costs,” “employee costs,” and the like.

“Employee Expenses” is broken down into salary bonuses, as well as social security, the five insurances and one housing fund, union dues, training fees, and other items. Among them, “salary bonuses” correspond to what we commonly call employee wages; the other details are collectively referred to as benefits.

Among the aforementioned 37 banks, most increased investment in human resources to ensure strategic execution. Among them, Luzhou Bank and Weihai Bank increased their human resources investment by 17% and 12% respectively last year; Chongqing Bank was also close to 10%, ranking among the top peers.

At the same time, the total labor costs of 11 banks decreased slightly. Among them, Everbright Bank fell by nearly 10% year over year, with the most notable decline ranking first; Jiangxi Bank, Dongguan Rural Commercial Bank, and Zhejiang Commercial Bank also saw declines of more than 5%.

In terms of compensation per employee, calculated according to equivalent headcount (the average of employee numbers at the beginning and end of the year), among the aforementioned 37 banks, joint-stock banks as a group saw a downward trend, but still remained in the absolute leading position.

Among them, CITIC Bank’s compensation per employee inched up to 600,000 yuan, temporarily ranking No. 1 among joint-stock banks. CMB’s compensation per employee has declined for four consecutive years and has already fallen back to within 580,000 yuan; Industrial Bank continued to stay around 560,000 yuan, a slight year-over-year increase.

Zhejiang Commercial Bank’s compensation per employee has also declined for three consecutive years, down 9% year over year from the previous year to about 520,000 yuan. Among the other joint-stock banks, only Everbright Bank’s decline was larger than Zhejiang Commercial Bank’s: the former’s compensation per employee fell 10.6% year over year to around 420,000 yuan.

In addition, the compensation per employee at Minsheng Bank, Ping An Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and Bohai Bank all fell within the 420,000 to 500,000 yuan range. Although Huaxia Bank saw a slight increase, its absolute scale of compensation per employee was still below 310,000 yuan.

In the same period, listed city commercial banks generally had compensation per employee around 380,000 yuan and overall it increased somewhat. Among them, Luzhou Bank, which is listed in Hong Kong, kept its level at 590,000 yuan and continued to rank among the top listed banks; Huishang Bank’s compensation per employee also exceeded 510,000 yuan.

Looking at the state-owned big banks again, although their employee expense spending in absolute terms is larger, due to changes in employee structure, their compensation per employee increased overall last year. Specifically, the compensation per employee at Bank of Communications and Bank of China rose to 455,000 yuan and 370,000 yuan respectively, keeping them near the top among big banks.

High compensation corresponds to high productivity

Overall, average compensation per employee at listed joint-stock banks and city commercial banks is among the top in the banking industry. Behind this there are objective factors:

First, joint-stock banks and city commercial banks have relatively concentrated branches and employees, and their operations are mainly distributed across major cities in China. Naturally, they need to offer more attractive compensation to attract talent.

Second, employee base numbers and educational composition also do not match across different types of banks. Taking rural commercial banks rooted in the countryside as an example, small and micro business is highly dependent on personnel, and their employee base is generally larger.

For state-owned big banks, employee counts can easily reach into the hundreds of thousands. Among domestic banking institutions of Bank of Communications, the proportion of employees with an undergraduate degree or above is close to 92%, while for employees of Agricultural Bank of China, the proportion with an undergraduate degree or above is below 79%.

By contrast, for listed joint-stock banks and city commercial banks, the proportion of employees with an undergraduate degree or above is generally higher than 85%. Among them, CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, and China Merchants Bank are even above 96%, 93%, and 91% respectively, and their corresponding compensation per employee levels are also relatively high.

In addition, compared with state-owned big banks, listed joint-stock banks and city commercial banks have more flexible mechanisms and are more market-oriented. Facing relatively fierce market competition, to attract talent they offer more enticing benefits, especially for compensation for business backbones and digital talent.

More importantly, matched with high compensation per employee is the high productivity per employee of listed joint-stock banks and city commercial banks.

Data show that among the 37 banks mentioned above, a total of 6 banks had revenue generation per employee above 2.8 million yuan, including 4 joint-stock banks and 2 city commercial banks.

Among them, CITIC Bank had revenue generation per employee of nearly 3.2 million yuan last year, ranking first. Ping An Bank and Industrial Bank followed closely, with revenue generation per employee of about 3.18 million yuan and 3.09 million yuan respectively.

Among city commercial banks, Huishang Bank and Chongqing Bank both had revenue generation per employee around 2.8 million yuan, staying at the leading level. Luzhou Bank, which had previously led among city commercial banks, saw revenue generation per employee drop 20% to 2.72 million yuan.

Meanwhile, revenue generation per employee at state-owned big banks generally hovered around 2 million yuan, and most increased year over year. Among them, Bank of Communications maintained revenue generation per employee at 2.73 million yuan last year, the highest among state-owned big banks. This corresponds to that bank’s relatively high compensation per employee.

Listed rural commercial banks are affected by factors such as having a larger employee base and relatively limited technology capability, so their revenue generation per employee is mostly within 2 million yuan. Among them, Wuxi Bank, which had relatively higher compensation per employee, saw revenue generation per employee exceed 2.71 million yuan last year.

Overall net hiring

After reviewing compensation and productivity per employee, the final thing to look at is the change in headcount among the aforementioned 37 listed banks’ employees: in 2025, employee numbers increased by more than 6,500 over the whole year, with the incremental amount less than in 2024. The number of banks that increased employees was basically equal to the number that reduced employees.

Overall, increases in bank employee numbers generally appeared in areas such as business marketing and information technology. According to statistics, the six state-owned big banks together added about 1,500 employees; Agricultural Bank and Bank of Communications increased headcount by about 3,100 and 2,200 respectively.

Among them, Bank of Communications has increased headcount for four consecutive years. Last year, among its domestic banking institutions’ employees, the number of sales and business development personnel increased by more than 1,700, and the number of financial technology personnel increased by over 700, basically achieving the financial technology “10,000-person plan” target.

Among joint-stock banks, China Merchants Bank’s employee headcount has also maintained a long-term growth trend. Last year it added nearly 4,400 employees, ranking No. 1 among the aforementioned 37 banks. In terms of professional composition, last year the total increase in employees in corporate finance and retail finance at the bank exceeded 2,400.

In addition, the annual report reveals that CMB emphasizes the reserve of talent in smart and digital intelligence. At the end of last year, the number of R&D personnel exceeded 11,000, accounting for 9.1% of total employees. At the annual performance announcement meeting, the bank also stated that it will focus on building “the first smart bank within the industry.”

In addition, the banking industry continues to推进 adjustments and optimization of employee structure. Overall, the characteristics of employee reductions in the banking industry are fairly consistent, and they are mainly concentrated in three categories of employees and positions:

First, positions with relatively strong substitutability. For example, tellers, security guards, telephone customer service, credit card sales, and so on—these positions may involve both regular employees and dispatched employees.

For these positions, salary levels are not high, and their contribution to bank revenue generation is relatively low. As digital transformation advances and customer preferences change, banks have also shut down less efficient outlets and promoted outlets toward “lightweight” and “smart” transformation.

Second, considering quality improvement and efficiency gains as well as the need to shorten the management radius, banks choose to streamline internal entities and reduce the proportion of middle- and back-office institutions and personnel. As a result, the number of some management positions and operational staff correspondingly decreases.

Third, employees whose educational background is not advantageous. According to statistics, in 2025, the total number of employees at the six state-owned big banks with junior college education or below decreased by more than 38,000.

Typography: Wang Yunpeng

Proofreading: Liao Shengchao