Toward an inclusive system for informal workers? Diverging impacts of labor informality on Chinese workers’ pension enrollment

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Chinese pension reform of 2011 allowed informal workers to enroll either in the employment-based pension program or in the residency-based pension program. Despite this historic pension reform, the question of how labor informality influences one's pension participation under the reformed pension regime has been insufficiently discussed. This article fills this gap by analyzing two waves of a national-level survey—the China Labor Dynamic Survey of 2012 and 2014. This article makes the following two points. First, the impact of labor informality differs across the two pension programs. Second, local citizenship filters the negative impact of labor informality, but only for the residency-based pension program. Having “local” citizenship does not offset the negative impact of labor informality on workers’ enrollment in the employment-based pension program. These findings show how the recent reform is ironically reinforcing the existing social cleavages between different types of Chinese workers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)100-111
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Social Welfare
Volume31
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2022

Keywords

  • China
  • labor informality
  • local citizenship
  • pension
  • social insurance
  • welfare policy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science

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