[A-List] Minimum Wage - too mimimum

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

China Daily (PRC)
2/7/04

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.