Inter-industry wage differentials in China, measured in terms of average employment earnings by industry, are significant and have been increasing since 1988. The coefficient of variables measuring inter-industry average earning differentials is apparently on the rise along with the subdivision of industry. A theoretical analysis of the labour market indicates that inter-industry wage differentials are mainly due to human capital variation among the employees of different industries and the likelihood of monopoly rent sharing. An empirical study finds that employee characteristics such as sex, age and education can only explain 60 percent of CVs in the period 2003 to 2005 and the rest may be due to the effect of monopoly rent sharing in certain industries. A residual analysis of wage equation proves that the monopoly industries of technology or knowledge share a small proportion of rents with employment, whereas non-competitive monopoly industries generally garner an abnormal share of rents, as much as half of their above-average earnings for their industries. Such abnormal rents and benefits are mainly the result of low cost natural resources, the use of state-owned assets, the misappropriation of consumer welfare and the seeking of fiscal or social subsidy for cost inflation. So, China should deal with the non-competitive monopoly industries by reforming their monopoly power and primary social distribution mechanism to structure a fair income distribution order.
