Abstract: The labor income share after the reform and opening up in China has obvious stage characteristics, and there are significant differences in driving forces at all the stages. The major driving force of the short-term rise of labor income share is the reform of the agricultural sector during 1978-1984. The structure change resulted from the factors of labor force transferred into non-agricultural sectors during 1985-1997 is the major driving forces of the decrease of labor income share. During 1998-2007, the major driving force for the continuous decrease of labor income share is the capital deepening and technological advances in the non-agricultural sectors, when the influence of the structural changes is decreasing gradually. After decreasing for a long time, the labor income share returned into the increasing trend again from 2008 to 2015, its major driving force is the rapid growth of wages in the non-agricultural sectors. The changing trend of labor income share in China conforms to Lewis’s dual economic theory, and the labor income share will go on to present an increasing trend in the future.

Key words: labor income share; driving force; stage characteristics; structure change; dual economy