Best-paying jobs in Beijing are IT professionals. Average monthly salary: $1,515

A recent survey by domestic job search site Kanzhun has shed some light on the average salaries of professionals in China’s biggest cities. For each city, the study shows the top three highest-paying industries based on monthly salary.

In Beijing, IT and internet professionals take the top spot. That category consists of web developers, software engineers, and everything in between. They make a median RMB 9,420 (US$1,515) per month. By comparison, the median salary for a web developer in America is US$4,473, according to compensation information firm PayScale. In San Francisco specifically, the monthly wage jumps to US$6,393.

In Shenzhen, a hotbed of hardware and one of China’s richest cities, those who work with physical electronics, communications, and hardware make the most, with an average monthly income of RMB 9,071 (US$1,458). IT/internet took runner up, followed by real-estate. In the US, a hardware engineer makes US$6,637, while a network technician earns an average US$3,420 per month.

Employees in Shanghai who work under "professional services" reported the highest salaries in the country at RMB 10,767 (US$1,731) per month. Professional services is a blanket term for consultants, human resources, legal counsels, and accountants, among other things. They beat out IT/internet and hardware/communications workers, who take the second and third spots, respectively.

Other cities in the top 10 that list IT and internet jobs in their top three industries are Hangzhou (the home of Alibaba), Dalian, Guangzhou, and Nanjing. Xi’an, Hangzhou, Dalian, Tianjin, and Nanjing all rank electronics and communications on the podium.

Comparisons with the US should be taken with a grain of salt, however. Kanzhun doesn’t disclose whether or not their figures include annual bonuses; Payscale’s do include it. Furthermore, Kanzhun’s job categories are much broader than Payscale’s, including a wider spectrum of jobs and pay grades. Experience and ability are also not factored in. But you can still get a rough idea of just how much cheaper it is to hire a developer in China than in the US.

Here’s a chart to help visualize the pay differences. We decided to low-ball the American salaries by choosing the lesser-paying job in the US for comparison, e.g. a web developer as opposed to a senior software engineer.