There is a big income gap in big cities. Why do people still gather in big cities?

With the advancement of urbanization, more and more cross-regional immigrants enter cities. Compared with their original hometown, their income may be higher, but compared with the existing urban residents, many immigrants belong to low-income groups. To look at the problems of big cities in China, we should have an international perspective. Because of its economic structure and particularity as a national talent gathering place, the income gap in big cities is usually high, which is a common phenomenon in the world.

From China's own point of view, with the passage of time, the income gap between urban residents is widening, which is faster than the income gap between rural residents and the national income gap. At the same time, due to the high population density in cities, the widening income gap between urban residents will bring great risks to the harmonious development of cities.

A big city is usually a gathering place for a country to develop modern service industry and high-tech industry, and in the case of economic globalization, the industries in big cities must represent the competitiveness of a country. In today's world where talents are fully mobile, the competition for talents tends to be "white-hot". In order to attract internationally competitive talents, internationally competitive salaries must be paid. In other words, for high-end talents, their income will take the lead in "connecting with the international community".

At the other end, low-skilled labor also gathers in big cities, which has objective economic laws. As mentioned above, the higher the labor productivity, the more it needs low-skilled labor to provide service support for high-skilled labor in the production process. At the same time, high-skilled labor also has the ability to pay for various consumer services in daily life, thus generating a large demand for low-skilled labor. The more highly skilled workers gather in big cities, the more employment opportunities there will be for low-skilled workers.

Service industry is divided into producer service industry and life service industry. Relatively speaking, highly skilled workers are more concentrated in production-oriented service industries such as finance, trade and consulting. According to the survey data of the labor market we have, if the industries in which workers work are divided into manual service industry, manufacturing industry and mental service industry, the average educational years in professional service industry with more brains are 13 years, while in manufacturing industry, this data is 1 1 year, and the average educational years in manual service industry are 10.8.

Between different cities, the labor productivity and wages in big cities are usually higher. So, do big cities really not need low-skilled workers? That's not true. Our data analysis shows that it is precisely because highly skilled workers drive the demand for workers in production and life that, on the whole, the proportion of workers engaged in manual service industry in larger cities is higher.

In the United States, the income differentiation among highly skilled workers is serious, some become Bill Gates, while others are ordinary white-collar workers. Similarly, among people with college education, the difference in the types of jobs they are engaged in is far greater than that of low-skilled labor. Even in the financial industry, the income gap between white-collar workers in investment banks and ordinary employees in financial street banks [- 1.42% capital research report] is very large. In this way, in a big city where high-skilled workers gather, the income differentiation among high-skilled workers will also drive the income gap of the whole city. In contrast, among the workers with lower education level, most of the jobs they are engaged in are manual labor, and the income gap between them is not big. High-tech workers and low-tech workers gather in the same direction in big cities, and the income gap between high-tech workers is huge, which makes the income gap in big cities in the United States higher than that in small and medium-sized cities, and compared with small and medium-sized cities, the income gap within big cities has also expanded significantly faster.

In China, there is also a positive correlation between city size and intra-city income gap. According to the analysis of 2005 census data, generally speaking, the bigger the city, the higher the income inequality. Further analysis shows that the problem in China is different from that in the United States, and the income gap in big cities in China is mainly due to the absorption of a large number of migrants. Judging from the education level, it is not mainly because the income gap of people with high education level is large, on the contrary, the income gap of people with low education level is even larger. At the present stage of China's development, college students' entrepreneurship is not common, but people with low education level are very active, which opens the income gap between people with low education level and drives the income gap of the whole city.

According to the Gini coefficient of income gap published by the National Bureau of Statistics, it will be a necessary basic work to count the income gap of China cities in the future to achieve harmonious social development. By then, the statistical scope of income gap must cover all permanent residents, non-local registered population living in megacities and even outsiders. The income gap calculated in this way may be relatively high, and the government should make full preparations. In particular, it is meaningless to pay attention only to the income gap of the local registered population, and it is not in line with international practice.

Under the condition that the widening income gap in big cities is almost a foregone conclusion, we should not simply intervene in the income level of residents determined by market forces, but should be very cautious in directly adjusting the income gap through policy intervention. Compared with direct intervention in income, the longer-term policy is to reduce the actual welfare gap of residents through equalization of public services, which is also an international practice. This means that if the future cities want to focus on narrowing the income gap of the permanent population, then the equalization of public services must be aimed at the permanent population. If the policy goal is still limited to the registered population, then the policy of narrowing the gap between the registered population's internal income and public services may bring about a larger gap between the registered population and the foreign population. This income gap and public service gap related to household registration have the nature of "unfair starting point", which is not conducive to promoting social harmony.

In reality, the place where the floating population is relatively concentrated is precisely the suburb where the contradiction between public service resources and population is relatively large. Take Shanghai as an example. According to a recent statistic, 50.4% of the post-80s migrant workers in Shanghai are in the suburbs and 30.9% are in the outer suburbs. The total is 8 1.3%, and only 18.7% is located in the central city. These people are mainly distributed in Pudong, Songjiang and Minhang, accounting for 49.7%, nearly half. With the migration of Shanghai's central population to the suburbs, the foreign permanent population is more concentrated in the suburbs, and the contradiction between the distribution of public services and the distribution of population will become more and more prominent, so the policy should pay attention to it as soon as possible.

In big cities, if the equalization policy is aimed at the permanent population, the uneven spatial distribution of educational resources will be more prominent. Taking ordinary middle schools in Shanghai as an example, the data shows that the development of middle schools in various districts (counties) in Shanghai is very uneven in 20 1 1 year, no matter the number of ordinary middle schools per resident, the number of teaching staff per capita or the number of teachers per capita. Jing 'an District and Huangpu District, the top two per capita indicators, are 2-3 times that of Songjiang District and Qingpu District. It is the general trend that public services should cover the permanent population. The Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 20 15 also clearly stated that public services should cover the permanent population. If we don't recognize this trend clearly and adopt a forward-looking policy to adjust the spatial layout of education as soon as possible, when more foreign permanent residents want to get primary and secondary education in the local area in the future, the problem of insufficient supply of educational resources in suburbs is bound to stand out, which is not conducive to residents' right to obtain educational resources in relatively equal.