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Rules set minimum wages for workers
Chinese workers will enjoy a new minimum wage under a revised regulation issued by labour authorities, officials have revealed. The regulation, which goes into effect at the beginning of next month, will increase the benchmark of wages amid workers' increasing expenses over previous years, said a Ministry of Labour and Social Security official only wanted to be known as Li. "We must increase a wage floor because workers must buy insurance with a small part of their incomes," said Li. The government is now setting up a social security system and workers and their enterprises will share the expense of social insurance. Along with the regulation, the ministry also made public a detailed method to calculate wage levels,with basic living expenses, local living standards and other indicators being considered. The ministry also suggested that 40-60 per cent of the average incomes of local people should be within the proper range for the minimum wage. According to the regulation, which was unveiled for the first time in 1993, if enterprises pay workers below local floor levels, they will be fined by five to 10 times the minimum. Meanwhile,safeguarding the interests of temporary labourers employed without fixed hours or workplaces is another aim of the revised regulation. "We are very concerned with the situation of those employed in non-traditional ways," said Li. "Their minimum wage must be regulated in line with local standards." Workers in "traditional" employment are hired for jobs with fixed hours and locations. But in "non-traditional" employment, the hours, days or even seasons of workers can vary with each employer. The Third Plenum of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China recently pushed for more flexible employment conditions for the country's unemployed, a matter considered essential for a stable Chinese society. Experts said the country's labour authority has previously focused only on protecting the rights and interests of traditional workers. As a result, those working in non-traditional jobs have been stuck with unreasonably low pay or have had their rights infringed. "The country needs laws and regulations to set a minimum wage in such cases and to protect those workers against exploitation," said Li. Official statistics indicated that 145 million Chinese worked without fixed hours and conditions last year. Only 14 per cent of these people earned more than 500 yuan per month (US$60), while only 10 per cent signed employment contracts with their employers. |
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