Two American business professors lead a survey of Chinese workers and published some of the results in an article headlined Misunderstanding the Chinese Worker in the Wall Street Journal.

In a nutshell, the study found that the West's perception that Chinese workers are motivated only by salary may be outdated and wrong. It points out that "Cultural shifts in China have altered social networks, leaving some workers there looking to employers for a sense of affiliation," and "nonmonetary incentives such as training, time off and community building might help multinational companies attract and retain workers in China."

I chatted with some friends including a head hunter in Shanghai on the subject. I was told that multinational companies are no longer the only top choice for Chinese talents.

When Western companies first set up shops in China in the early 1980s, up until the mid- to late-1990s Chinese local employees at Western companies took pride in their income, which was higher than Chinese state-owned companies and domestic private enterprises by a large margin. That gap has since been shrinking, as Chinese state-owned and private companies catch up on compensation.

More importantly, the absence of an efficient social security and health-care system has made people realize that money doesn't bring a sense of security. "The average government employee's base salary is still lower than his/her counterpart with multinational companies," my head hunter friend said, "but you pretty much have zero pressure at work, don't need to work overtime and also enjoy all kinds of benefits and additional income." Typical benefits can be anything from overseas vacations to a monthly garment fee; gym passes to quarterly bonuses for working in summer (called High Temperature Allowance); right down to cash, gift cards and food items.

Most importantly, state-run company workers never need to worry about losing their job. Believe it or not, many Chinese are nostalgic of their "iron rice bowls" (an idiom coined for permanent, state jobs) that have been shattered in the three decades of market reform and economic development.