The Impact of China’s New Labour Contract Law on Socioeconomic Outcomes for Migrant and Urban Workers

TitleThe Impact of China’s New Labour Contract Law on Socioeconomic Outcomes for Migrant and Urban Workers
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsCheng, Zhiming, Smyth, Russell, and Guo, Fei
JournalHuman Relations
Volume68
Issue3
Pagination329 - 352
Date Published2015
KeywordsChina, labor contract law, migrant worker, worker well-being
Abstract

This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjective well-being and wages, but not for hours worked.