Editor's note: The salary in this article is calculated based on the annual report disclosure data of listed companies in various ports, reflecting the employee salary and labor costs at the enterprise level, and belongs to the pre tax caliber; In addition to wages, bonuses, allowances, etc., it also includes social insurance, housing provident fund, and related welfare expenses borne by the enterprise. Therefore, the salary mentioned in the article is not equivalent to the employee's personal after tax salary, nor does it represent the actual income of a specific position or individual. Due to differences in annual report statistical standards, consolidation scope, and employee composition among different enterprises, the relevant data is mainly used to observe the overall salary level and trends of port enterprises.
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Comparing the salary data of port listed companies from 2020 to 2025, how much has the salary of port workers increased? Qingdao Port, Nanjing Port, Tianjin Port, and Ningbo Zhoushan Port have the highest growth rates. #Dock # Frontline Workers # State owned Enterprises # Welfare Benefits
In the past five years, the port industry has undergone automation upgrades, business restructuring, port integration, and cyclical changes in the global shipping market, which have ultimately been reflected in the wallets of port practitioners. Port Circle（ID：gangkouquan）After sorting out the employee salaries, number of employees, and executive compensation data of 17 port listed companies in 2020 and 2025, the average annual salary of current employees has shown an overall upward trend. Let's take a look at how your port has increased?
Let's take a look at the overall data. In 2020, the total salary of employees in 17 port enterprises was 28.382 billion yuan. By 2025, this number will rise to 35.814 billion yuan, an increase of 7.432 billion yuan in five years, with a growth rate of 26.2%. The total number of employees increased by 762 during the same period, and the overall situation remained stable. Reflected in the average annual salary, it has increased from 207700 yuan in 2020 to 269900 yuan, an increase of 33.71%.
Among the 17 port enterprises, the per capita salary of employees shows a significant hierarchical differentiation.The per capita annual salary of Shanghai Port Group is as high as 499000 yuan, followed closely by Qingdao Port (363800 yuan), Tianjin Port (343200 yuan), and Ningbo Zhoushan Port (308800 yuan), all of which have entered the high salary tier of over 300000 yuan; However, the bottom ranked Beibu Gulf Port (205400 yuan), Chongqing Port (203300 yuan), and the bottom ranked Zhuhai Port (164100 yuan) still hover in the range of 160000 to 200000 yuanThe difference between the highest and lowest is three times.
However, looking back at the economic coordinate system of the city where the port is located, the salary and benefits of port enterprises are a different picture. In 2025, the average annual salary of non private units in urban areas of Chongqing will be 121200 yuan, Zhuhai will be 144400 yuan, and the core port areas of Fangchenggang and Qinzhou under the jurisdiction of Beibu Gulf Port will be 97400 yuan and 93500 yuan respectively. By comparison,Except for Zhuhai Port, which is slightly higher than the local social average line, Chongqing Port has nearly 68% higher social average wages than the local area, and Beibu Gulf Port has more than twice the local social average wagesCoastal ports are mostly local "state-owned enterprise storefronts" and heavy asset giants. Even if they rank low in the national port circle, they can still be considered "hot cakes" in third - and fourth tier cities; On the other hand, in Zhuhai, the average social wage is already high. In addition, local small and medium-sized ports are squeezed by surrounding large ports and have limited scale. The salary increase of port employees naturally cannot keep up with the rising income of the whole city, and the local premium is not so prominent.
If local ports demonstrate their advantages locally, then leading ports located in first tier mega cities directly push the salary ceiling to the extreme. As the world's largest port in terms of throughput,Shanghai Port GroupThe average salary continues to lead. The number of employees in the group has been reduced from 14000 in 2020 to 13000 in 2025, while the per capita salary remains at a high level of nearly 500000 yuan. However, it should be noted that since the data is based on the consolidated financial statements of the group and covers non port high paying businesses such as Shanghai Port Football Club, it cannot directly benchmark the actual income of frontline dock workers.
The most impressive increase is undoubtedlyQingdao PortThe per capita annual salary has significantly increased by 50.08% year-on-year, resonating with the business expansion of container throughput from 22.01 million TEUs to 32.89 million TEUs (an increase of nearly 50%). By 2025, the single machine operation efficiency of the fully automated container terminal bridge crane at Qingdao Port will reach 62.62 natural containers per hour, breaking the world record for 13 consecutive times and improving efficiency by more than 30% compared to traditional terminals. The leap in employee structure and human capital value during the transition from traditional labor-intensive to automation and technology intensive has been most typical confirmed in Qingdao Port.
The industry as a whole maintains steady growth,Seven companies, including Tianjin Port, Ningbo Port, Nanjing Port, Qinhuangdao Port Co., Ltd., Lianyungang Port, Beibu Gulf Port, and Chongqing Port, all saw gains of over 40%, while China Merchants Port, Xiamen Port, Yantian Port, Zhuhai Port, and others remained near the industry averageThe only company showing "zero growth" is Liaogang Shares. After the merger and renaming of Dalian Port and Yingkou Port in 2021, the total number of employees has surged from approximately 6152 in 2020 to 10561 in 2025. Although the total salary plate has expanded synchronously, the integration of the original two Hong Kong salary systems and the large number of employees have significantly spread and diluted the per capita value, presenting a phenomenon of "five years without increase" on the books.
The salary distributed to outsourced workers can directly reflect the real salary situation of high-intensity front-line work such as dock loading and unloading, storage and handling. Among the companies that disclose outsourcing data, the average hourly wage for outsourcing in 2025 is about 45.70 yuan, and there is a clear regional gradient differentiation: Tianjin Port (64.10 yuan/hour), Ningbo Zhoushan Port (62.24 yuan/hour), and Guangzhou Port (58.55 yuan/hour) remain in the first tier, while Zhuhai Port is only 23.24 yuan/hour, with a difference of nearly 2.8 times between the beginning and end; Tangshan Port and Beibu Gulf Port have benefited from the expansion and standardization of throughput in recent years, with hourly wage increases exceeding 45% in the past five years.
According to the known average hourly wage in ports, with 8 hours per day and 365 days a year without rest, the corresponding annual salary for outsourced workers is about 133400 yuan, barely outperforming the national average annual wage of 129400 yuan for non private sector employees in urban areas by 2025; If we return to the statutory standard working system (250 days/2000 working hours), the actual annual salary for regular employees is only about 91400 yuan, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary of 269900 yuan for current port employees during the same period. Another point to note is that,The amount disclosed in the annual report is actually the comprehensive procurement cost paid by the port to labor dispatch or outsourcing companies. After deducting service fees, management fees, and various operating expenses through outsourcing intermediaries, the actual labor remuneration received by frontline dock workers will only be lowerCombining the huge outsourcing volume of tens of millions of hours at Ningbo Zhoushan Port and Guangzhou Port, it is not difficult to see that behind the transformation of port automation and the high per capita salary in reporting, a large number of flexible and low-cost first-line labor outsourcing are still the solid foundation for major ports to maintain efficient operation and cost control around the clock.
If we shift our focus from ordinary employees to the group of directors, senior executives, and supervisors, we will see another set of data. Among the 17 port enterprises,The total compensation for directors, supervisors, and senior executives in 2020 was approximately 11.727 billion yuan, and in 2025 it will be approximately 11.791 billion yuan, with an overall growth rate of only 0.5%. Compared to the 26.2% increase in total employee compensation, the overall change in executive compensation is significantly smallerHowever, the magnitude of changes varies among different companies. Companies with significant increases in executive compensation include Tianjin Port (+74.5%), Qinhuangdao Port Co., Ltd. (+48.8%), Rizhao Port (19.2%), Qingdao Port (+16.2%), and Beibu Gulf Port (+15.6%). At the same time, several companies have also experienced a decline: the total salary of Xiamen Port's directors and supervisors decreased from 8.8985 million yuan to 4.3058 million yuan, a decrease of 52.1%; Chongqing Port decreased by 46.1%; Zhuhai Port decreased by 26.2%; Ningbo Port decreased by 22.7%.
The overall change in executive compensation is relatively stable, mainly due to two practical factors: on the one hand, many chairmen and shareholder representatives in major port enterprises hold positions in the parent company group or state-owned platform and receive compensation, and their compensation relationships are not reflected in the annual report; On the other hand, the executive compensation base is already high, and state-owned enterprises have strict performance evaluation and salary deferral mechanisms for management, lacking the flexibility to significantly increase salaries due to business growth like ordinary employees.
The port industry believes that five years is enough to bring about significant changes in an industry. For ports, these changes are not only reflected in throughput, berths, and automation equipment, but also in the salary records of every port worker. The number of people did not increase significantly, but the total salary increased; Some positions have been reduced, but the per capita salary has increased; The labor cost structure of enterprises is also quietly changing.
In the process of transforming ports from labor-intensive industries to technology intensive and capital intensive industries,How many people do ports need? "Is gradually becoming another question: what kind of people do ports need?This may be more worth paying attention to than how much salary has increased over the past five years.
