Six central features of the Chinese labour market: A literature survey

Song, Yang

doi:10.1111/ilr.12016

Cited by 22 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Overtime work among the migrant workers group reflects the current segmentation of the Chinese labor market. Studies have shown that employment discrimination based on “hukou” is more serious, and it is also the main reason for the division of the urban labor market (118). Therefore, reform of the household registration system should be the main focus of attention in order to eliminate labor market segmentation and promote integration of the labor market, which would lead to a break away from the institutional separation of the market and a shift toward the establishment of a unified labor market in which labor can flow freely.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Work Overtime? A Systematic Review on the Evolutionary Trend and Influencing Factors of Work Hours in China

Liu

Chen

Yang

et al. 2019

Front. Public Health

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Objectives: Research that examined changes in the laws in respect to work hours was of great importance for understanding its current status and causes. However, most research on work hours in China is still conducted using self-reported questionnaires, which lack coherence and depth, and are inadequate for exploring the evolutionary trend of work hours and its mechanism.Methods: This study examined the evolutionary trend of Chinese employees' work hours by employing a cross-temporal meta-analysis, and employed the entropy weight method to analyze each influencing factor. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP information and WanFang database were searched for Chinese-language peer-reviewed literature, and Google Scholar and the Web of Science were searched for related literature in the English language.Results: A total of 36 pieces of literature were identified as having satisfied the quality standards for screening. The results indicated that work hours in China show a significant fluctuating upward trend. Most of the recent studies on work hours in China were cross-provincial investigations, and the issue of overtime among migrant workers has become the key focus of current research. Most studies on the work hours of Chinese employees were conducted in a manner whereby scholars played a leading role while the government assisted. Thus, government-led, intensive and nationwide research needs to be launched.Conclusions: The issue of work hours in China should be taken seriously. The main influencing factors included survival indicators, such as labor market conditions and levels of medical security levels, followed by power-assisted indicators, such as personal income and distribution, while labor protection had a minimal impact. This study will contribute to a better understanding of the essence of work hours among Chinese employees, and will also help to provide a theoretical basis for further intervention study related to overtime work.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Work Overtime? A Systematic Review on the Evolutionary Trend and Influencing Factors of Work Hours in China

Liu

Chen

Yang

et al. 2019

Front. Public Health

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“…The current situation is thus more complex than the mere depletion of the available rural workforce. Labour shortages in the most industrialised areas of coastal provinces are combined with a persistent rural workforce surplus (approximately 110m workers) ready to accept very low wages, but no longer attracted by the low benefits of migration (Song, 2017).…”

Section: Wages In China: a Kuznets–lewis Textbook Case?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The power imbalance in the wage relationship nonetheless persists due to the inability of the trade union to truly defend the rights of the mingong within factories. According to Song (2017), the presence of the ACFTU in companies does not have a positive effect on wages. 7 The lack of legitimate workers’ representatives contributes to the high level of conflicts in China.…”

Section: A ‘Chinese-style’ Industrial Relations Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing wages and labour institutions in China: An unfinished transition

Périsse

Sehier

2019

The Economic and Labour Relations Review

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The rise of wages in China would seem to indicate that the demographic dividend has reached its end. A more refined approach reveals, however, that the situation of Chinese workers has not really improved: even though real wages are rising, the share of wages in the nation’s wealth has not kept pace. The reason for this is China’s position within global value chains, where the employment relationship is not solely governed by the employer–employee power relationship, but by contractual relations established between ‘lead firms’ and subcontractors. This situation echoes labour institutional economist JR Commons’ concept of ‘competitive menace’ and analyses of the structural imbalance of power in the employer/employee relationship. We argue that despite the Chinese government’s desire for industrial upgrading and its intention to develop internal labour markets, Chinese labour institutions have shown significant resistance to change making it hard to envisage any shift towards a Fordist regime of capital accumulation based on a virtuous cycle of mass production and mass consumption. JEL codes: B52, J30

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“…Our analysis of rent sharing in China is also of particular interest given the country's particular institutional structure. Despite its impressive economic growth over the last decades, many formal labour market institutions that are common in OECD countries are at a much earlier stage of development in China (Song, 2017). These institutions include collective bargaining, independent trade unions, and employment protection law, as well as unemployment benefits and other forms of social protection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rent sharing in China: Magnitude, heterogeneity and drivers

Duan

Martins

2021

Brit J Industrial Rel

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Do firms in China share rents with their workers? We address this question by examining firm-level panel data covering virtually all manufacturing firms over the period 2000-2007, representing an average of 200,000 firms and 54 million workers per year. We find robust evidence of rent sharing (RS): workers that would move from low-to high-profit firms would see their wages increase by about 45\%. The results are based on multiple instrumental variables, including firm-specific international trade shocks. We also present a number of complementary findings: RS is weaker in firms with more women and less educated workers; RS involves an element of risk sharing, as wages also decrease when profits fall; RS is lower in regions with more latent competition from rural workers; higher minimum wages tend to reduce RS; and, while employer labour market power reduces wages, it increases RS. Overall, despite its importance, RS in China is smaller than in developed economies, which reflects the weaker bargaining power of its workers and the different scope of its labour market institutions.

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Six central features of the Chinese labour market: A literature survey

Cited by 22 publications

References 69 publications

Why Work Overtime? A Systematic Review on the Evolutionary Trend and Influencing Factors of Work Hours in China

Why Work Overtime? A Systematic Review on the Evolutionary Trend and Influencing Factors of Work Hours in China

Analysing wages and labour institutions in China: An unfinished transition

Rent sharing in China: Magnitude, heterogeneity and drivers

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