Ping An leads with a 10% average salary increase; the truth about listed insurance companies' compensation: employees see raises, executives see cuts, reducing staff and increasing efficiency become key.

MaticHoleFiller · 2026-04-06T14:03:24+00:00

In 2025, the average salary of the five major listed insurance companies in the A-share market generally increased, while the total number of employees decreased, indicating that the industry-wide salary reduction trend is spreading to the insurance sector. Executive compensation continued its downward trend, reflecting a focus on long-term performance and cost management. Despite growth in net profit, industry transformation is still underway.

MaticHoleFiller

2026-04-06 14:03:24

Abstract generation in progress

Interface News reporter | Feng Lijun

At present, the five listed insurance companies in China’s A-share market have all disclosed their 2025 annual reports.

Judging from the 2025 annual report data, the average compensation per employee of listed insurers continued the growth trend seen in 2024, and per-capita profit creation has generally also increased. However, this is happening under the condition that 2025 net profits of the above-mentioned insurers grew, while the total number of employees declined somewhat. As for management total compensation, in 2025 it basically continued the downward trend seen in 2024: China Life (601628.SH) and China PICC (601319.SH) saw a significant drop in management compensation.

“From the 2025 annual report data of listed insurers, it can be seen that the ‘pay-cut wave’ in the financial industry has been effectively passed on to the insurance sector, but it shows clear structural characteristics.” Fu Yifu, a special research fellow at Chinese Commercial Bank, told Interface News. Overall, this pattern releases positive signals: the insurance industry is shifting from “scale expansion” to “value growth.” By optimizing human resource structures and correcting compensation distribution, it improves capital returns and employee efficiency.

Ping An’s average compensation per employee grows by 10%

Based on Wind data, in 2025, the five major listed insurers—New China Life (601336.SH), China Taiping (601601.SH), China Life, China PICC, and Ping An (601318.SH)—all saw increases in average compensation per employee. The growth rates were 6.17%, 3.33%, 6.89%, 4.79%, and 10.01%, respectively.

In absolute terms, China PICC’s average compensation per employee remains the highest. According to Wind data, China PICC’s average compensation per employee in 2025 was RMB 391.7k; next was Ping An at RMB 355.2k; and China Life had the lowest average compensation per employee at RMB 286.3k.

Data source: Wind

In fact, in 2024, the average compensation per employee at the five listed insurers rose across the board. New China Life increased by nearly 30%, China Life rose by more than 20%, Ping An’s average compensation per employee increased by 17.33%, and China PICC and China Taiping’s increases were less than 10%.

Data source: Wind; charts compiled by Interface News reporter

In 2025, the continued rise in average compensation per employee among listed insurers was built on a backdrop of a sharp increase in net profit in 2025. In 2025, China Taiping, China Life, China PICC, Ping An, and New China Life’s net profit growth rates were 19.01%, 44.09%, 8.81%, 6.45%, and 38.34%, respectively.

Meanwhile, regarding the total number of employees, according to Wind data, by the end of 2025, only China PICC increased its total employee count from 175,121 at the end of 2024 to 179,898, up 2.73%. The other four companies all reduced staff to varying degrees: China Taiping reduced its total employees by 3,351, accounting for 3.53%; China Life reduced by 1,184, accounting for 1.20%; Ping An reduced 14,247 employees, with a reduction rate of 5.22%; and New China Life reduced 949 employees, with a reduction rate of 3.31%.

Against this backdrop, in 2025, per-capita profit creation at China Taiping, China Life, China PICC, Ping An, and New China Life increased by 23.36%, 45.84%, 5.92%, 12.31%, and 43.07%, respectively.

“Small growth in average compensation for ordinary employees was achieved against the backdrop of a widespread reduction in the total number of employees—which means companies are placing greater emphasis on ‘improving quality and efficiency.’ They retain high-performing personnel, optimize redundancy, and per-capita profit creation increases as a result. This is a healthy approach to cost management, not just a simple wage cut.” Fu Yifu said to Interface News.

“Through layoffs and streamlining of inefficient roles, the five insurers both retain core capacity employees and increase compensation, resulting in higher per-capita profit creation. The outcome is that per-capita compensation rises while the total number of employees falls—this is the result of layoffs improving efficiency.” Wang Guojun, a professor at the School of Insurance at the University of International Business and Economics, told Interface News.

However, Wang Guojun emphasized that net profit growth does not necessarily mean a sector recovery; investment income is the main contributor. The growth in net profits of insurers in 2025 was mainly driven by the favorable performance of equity markets—for example, China Life’s total investment yield reached 6.09%, the highest in nearly a decade. But growth in new business value in the insurance business itself remains weak, and industry transformation is still ongoing.

Management compensation overall continues to decline

In terms of management compensation, according to Wind data, the total annual compensation for management at the five listed insurers generally declined in 2024, and this trend continued into 2025.

“In 2025, the total compensation for boards and senior executives at the five insurers declined year over year by about 6.8%.” Wang Guojun told Interface News. The decline in management compensation is the result of both regulatory pressure and industry transformation. On the one hand, the Ministry of Finance’s restrictions and requirements on compensation for financial executives; on the other hand, insurers are shifting from “scale expansion” to “value-based operations,” focusing more on long-term performance rather than short-term incentives.

Fu Yifu told Interface News that management total compensation continued to slide, showing that “tighter days for senior leadership” has become a shared industry understanding. This responds to the regulatory direction that compensation in the financial industry should be linked to risk and strengthens corporate governance, and it also reflects the operating logic of insurers proactively compressing administrative costs under pressure from the spread-loss problem.

However, there are also some executives whose compensation increased significantly in 2025 due to factors such as concurrently holding other positions.

Looking at specifics: China Life’s total annual compensation for management decreased by 32.74%. Among them, Chief Actuary Hou Jin served concurrently as Assistant President in 2025, and his salary increased by nearly 20%.