The Chinese Government is pushing a reform in the "interest of the broadest masses" to reduce income gaps and redress social inequity.

In its latest effort to ensure that the country's pay and distribution system work in a "scientific, rational, fair and just" fashion, the government has vowed to increase the income of low earners, expand the moderate-income population and readjust the earnings of the top bracket, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

The pay and distribution reform is important to building a harmonious society, Xinhua said in an interview with officials from the ministries of personnel, finance, civil affairs, and labour and security.

The reform has aroused widespread attention since the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussed it in May.

Although the country has made headway in improving living standards and reforming its social security system, it has yet to tackle thorny problems in income distribution.

For one thing, the income disparity has been widening between urban and rural dwellers, among people living in different areas, and among workers in different industries, Xinhua said.

Urban residents earn on average three times what rural people do. The richest people, accounting for 10 per cent of city dwellers, possess 45 per cent of total urban wealth, according to media reports.

To narrow the wealth gap, the country has to deepen reform on income distribution, unnamed officials quoted by Xinhua said.

On the basis of economic development, the reform will focus more on social equity and will be designed to ensure all Chinese benefit from the reform, opening-up and modernization campaign, they said.

It prohibits people from making illegal earnings and strives to narrow the income disparity, they added.

A major component of the reform is the wage system for civil servants.

The existing system for civil servants has lagged behind the development of the socialist market economy, bringing a negative impact on the enthusiasm and stability of civil servants in the country, Xinhua said.

Under the new arrangement, preferential payment will be given as incentives to encourage civil servants to work at the grass-roots levels.

Sixty per cent of Chinese civil servants work in governments at the county or lower levels, and 92 per cent are lower ranking, official statistics indicate.

The new wage system will give those low-ranking civil servants more opportunities to earn more. They will also receive more subsidies if they work in remote and poverty-stricken areas.

For employees of public institutions, their income will be closely linked to their work performance, according to the reform package.

Editor: Yan