labor - How much did Chinese salaries rise?

Whenever somebody comes with national figures on wage developments in China, it gets at least my interest. As you might know I'm working on the China-leg of the Wage Indicator, a global system of measuring wages. For China it even makes more sense to set up that system, since nobody has a clue what is happening in the country.
So, when Xinhua reports that salaries went up 12.6 (not 12.5!) percent over the past five years, why do they claim this? It is because the five-year plan over the past five years has concluded ant the Ministry of Labor and Social Security is obliged to report whether they have met their targets. There is not a clear relations with the reality.
Xinhua:

During this period, a salary distribution system based on collective consultation has been formed, the official said, "over 400,000 companies have established the distribution system."

Any clue what this means? I do not and most likely nobody does. No clue what the 'distribution system' might entail. Only one thing is clear:

"In the 11th Five-Year Program period (2006 to 2010), China will push forward reform of distribution system and base the system on collective consultation as the main form," the official said.

Damned. Very glad to hear that.