Beijing topped a salary ranking of 20 provinces and municipalities in China's non-private sector last year, with an average annual pay of 111,390 yuan ($16,953), the People's Daily Overseas Edition reported on Wednesday.

Zhejiang followed with 66,668 yuan, but that was still 44,722 yuan less than Beijing's level. Guangdong came third, while Henan registered the lowest, just 45,403 yuan.

Earlier, the National Statistics Bureau (NBS) said the average annual salary for non-private sector employees in China's urban areas reached 62,029 yuan and for private sector employees, 39,589 yuan.

Compared to the NBS data, most of the 20 places failed to live up to the national average. Only Beijing, Zhejiang and Guangdong topped the national average pay in the non-private sector, while in the private sector in urban areas, those three and Chongqing exceeded the national average.

Hebei, Hunan and Guangdong saw non-private sector employees' annual salaries rise at a faster pace than the national average.

In all 20 places, the annual average salary in the non-private sector was higher than that of the private sector.

Official statistics showed that in the private sector, employees in Jilin received the lowest annual pay, 27,774 yuan, while those in Beijing got the highest pay, 58,689 yuan, followed by Guangdong, 44,838 yuan.

According to the paper, Su Hainan, the vice president of the China Association for Labor Studies, attributed the pay gap between non-private and private sectors to non-private entities' stronger capabilities and better operation, as well as a reform of pension insurance that resulted in a salary increase for employees in the non-private sector last year.

Nationwide, the finance industry registered the highest pay, which was 1.85 times the national average for the non-private sector and ranked third in the private sector, the report said.