Abstract: The gross payroll control is an important way to narrow the income gap of employees in enterprises with different ownerships. Then can the gross payroll control promote the efficiency transform of central enterprises on the basis of promoting fairness? Taking the A-share listed companies controlled by central enterprises from 2015 to 2021 as the samples, this paper collects the related information about gross payroll control manually to examine the impact of gross payroll control on total factor productivity of central enterprises. The findings show that the total wage control has enhanced the total factor productivity of central enterprises. Further research shows that improving the external fairness of employee compensation, enhancing the performance sensitivity of employee compensation, and urging enterprises to reduce redundant employees are important ways for gross payroll control to improve the total factor productivity of central enterprises. The above-mentioned impact is more obvious in the samples of the monopoly industries and the mature central enterprises. This conclusion shows that gross payroll control can promote social equity and enhance enterprise efficiency by making overall plans and take all factors into consideration. While narrowing the gap of employee salaries between different ownerships, the efficiency of employee incentive of the central enterprises is improved. Therefore, the related government departments should further implement the gross payroll control policy, refine the gross payroll management methods for special matters such as staff adjustment and asset restructuring, implement differentiated gross payroll management for the funding enterprises, and give play to the role of gross payroll control in improving the quality and efficiency of central enterprises.

Key words: central enterprises, gross payroll, total factor productivity, employee incentive, SOE reform