The average CEO salary of China's state-owned enterprises is 580,000 yuan before taxes.

Most CEOs' salaries have two parts, basic salary and performance pay. A few CEOs of listed companies have stock shares.

"I personally feel the salaries of the CEOs are not very high because we have a very strict salary system," said Shao Ning, vice director of State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, at the Boao Forum for Asia 2010 in Hainan Province. "But if the salary is too low and do not have competitiveness in the market, it cannot attract talent for companies."

Shao said they had done research on the salary of other countries and found that salary cultures differ greatly. In the U.S., the salary gap between CEOs and ordinary employees is as much as 100 times. In Japan, the gap is around 20 times. The gap in South Korea is 12 to 13 times, which is similar to China.

A Norwegian CEO said the salary difference between a CEO and an employee with 10 years of work experience is only four to five times in his country.