BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has
frozen pay for senior executives in 2021 and is instead giving junior staff
bigger salary increases, sources said, in an effort to preserve its workforce
amid a regulatory clampdown.
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Hundreds of top-tier executives at Alibaba are not entitled
to salary hikes this year, unless they performed extraordinarily, four sources
familiar with the matter said.
The Hangzhou-based company, though, has offered considerable
wage increases to junior staff, they said.
The pay moves mark a departure from the usual for Alibaba,
which has been the focal point of China's months-long crackdown on the
mainland's big and powerful technology companies on worries about their market
dominance and ability to sway public opinion.
Its management level executives, over the years, received on
average a 5 percent to 10 percent pay rise annually and were also given stock
incentives, one source said.
In a statement to Reuters, Alibaba did not directly comment
on the pay freeze for executives, but said: "Talent is Alibaba Group's
most important asset. We have a robust and competitive compensation system that
reflects our priorities in cultivating our next generation of talents."
The sources declined to be named as they were not allowed to
speak to media.
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares fell more than 2.5 percent
on Friday, in line with a weak broader market.
Alibaba, which runs businesses from e-commerce to cloud
computing to logistics to entertainment, employed more than 252,000 staff as of
2020. It usually decides pay rises for most employees in April.
The Alibaba business empire has come under intense scrutiny
in China since billionaire founder Jack Ma's stinging public criticism of the
country's regulatory system in October.
It was fined a record 18 billion yuan ($2.78 billion)
earlier in April after an anti-monopoly probe found the e-commerce giant had
abused its dominant market position for several years.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation has taken
aim recently at China's large tech giants in particular, mirroring increased
scrutiny of the sector in the United States and Europe.
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