China Mobile Communications Corporation will reduce the salaries of its managerial staff members by up to 50%.

According to the salary reduction plan announced Wednesday, the top-ranking officials of the company will suffer a 50% decrease in their pay, the managers from provincial branches will see their salaries cut by 40%, and the directors from different departments within the corporation will be take a 20% reduction in their payrolls.

China Mobile's salary reduction is in response to a salary reform plan governing the state-owned corporations that was promulgated on January 1 of this year. The Chinese government also sent two notices to these enterprises to follow up with the reform plan, announcing that the total salary increase in a corporation must not be bigger than the increase in its profits. In other words, if the profits of an enterprise drop, then its total salary must also go down.

The reform in the payroll system has affected 72 state-owned enterprises, including China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petroleum Chemical Corporation and China Mobile.