Half of female migrant workers in China are in irregular employment and only about 20 per cent have medical insurance, according to a survey report recently released by the All-China Women's Federation.

The report which was released on 21 November found that most women migrant workers are employed to do low-skilled jobs, which require physical strength and young age. Their working conditions are generally bad and their income is unstable. The survey was conducted with 6,596 women migrant workers who come from 416 villages in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jilin, Hubei, Henan, Ningxia, Shaanxi and Guizhou provinces. They are working in 53 areas in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu.

Women migrant workers' income is lower than their male counterparts. The interviewed women workers receive an average monthly salary of 859.01 yuan, while male workers get 1033.68 yuan each month, 20 percent higher than women workers. The report also found that women workers' wage payments are usually worse than male workers. They always face problems like excessive overtime work, wage arrears and non-payment of overtime work.

Few women migrant workers have signed labour contracts with their employers and very few of them have social insurance. Only 40 percent have labour contracts, while only 23.8 percent have medical insurance, 19.1 percent have occupational injury insurance, 15.8 percent have pension insurance, 8.1 percent have unemployment insurance and 6.7 percent have maternity insurance. Most interviewed women workers don't have maternity leaves, while 64.5 percent don't get any salary during maternity leaves. Only 36.4 percent companies give women workers over 90 days of maternity leave. Only 12.8 percent of the interviewed women workers said they can claim back their maternity medical payments.

Source: China Youth Daily (22 November 2006)

22 November 2006