On April 28th, China Construction Third Bureau and Third Company organized a commendation activity for outstanding migrant workers as "builders and descendants of Luban" in Wuhan. People’s Daily reporter Cheng Yuanzhou photo
"The starting salary of migrant workers exceeds that of college students", "The wages of migrant workers are rising too fast, and enterprises are under great pressure" … … This statement has appeared frequently in the past two years. What is the salary status of migrant workers? How fast is it rising? Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Labor and Wage Research Institute has provided an exclusive report on migrant workers’ salary for this newspaper.
Compared with urban workers, it is still low.
How fast did the wages of migrant workers increase during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period? The project report shows that in 2015, the last year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the average monthly income of migrant workers was 3,072 yuan, while in 2010, the last year of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the average monthly income of migrant workers was 1,690 yuan, with an average annual increase of 12.7%.
Among them, the average monthly income of migrant workers in 2011 was 2,049 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.2%. Such a high growth rate attracted special attention. In the following years, the wage increase of migrant workers tended to be stable. In 2012, the average monthly income of migrant workers was 2,290 yuan, up 11.8% year-on-year; In 2013, the average monthly income of migrant workers was 2,609 yuan, an increase of 13.9%; In 2014, the average monthly income of migrant workers was 2,864 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%; In 2015, it increased by 7.2% year on year.
Generally speaking, in the past few years, the wages of migrant workers have achieved rapid growth. However, the report also pointed out that due to the low base, the salary level of migrant workers is still low compared with that of urban workers, which basically remains at around 60%. Looking at the absolute amount, the gap between the wages of migrant workers and the average wages of urban workers has not narrowed. In 2011, the annual wage gap between them was 17,864 yuan, and in 2014 it reached 21,971 yuan.
Regionally, in the early period of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the income growth rate of migrant workers in the central and western regions was higher than that in the eastern region, and the income gap between the eastern and central and western regions gradually narrowed. From the employment location of migrant workers, the income level and increase of migrant workers in big cities are significantly higher than those in medium and small cities. This can also explain why migrant workers flock to big cities.
To some extent, the rapid rise is "compensatory growth"
The average annual growth rate of migrant workers’ income is 12.7%, far exceeding the GDP growth during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period. How to improve the salary of migrant workers quickly? According to the analysis of the report, there are three main factors.
First, China’s sustained economic development is the main factor of migrant workers’ salary growth. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, although China’s economy has been affected by the international environment and its speed has slowed down, it is still the fastest growing country among the major economies in the world. In the same period, employment remained stable. For five consecutive years, the number of new jobs in cities and towns remained above 12 million, and the registered unemployment rate in cities and towns remained at 4.1%. This provides support for the continuous increase in the wages of migrant workers.
Second, the improvement of the minimum wage standard creates favorable conditions for the salary growth of migrant workers. During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, the average annual increase of the minimum wage reached 13.1%. By 2015, the highest standard in Shenzhen has reached 2030 yuan, and the highest level of minimum wage in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities has exceeded 1100 yuan. Most migrant workers are at the low end of the labor market, and their salary level is greatly affected by the minimum wage. During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, the adjustment of the minimum wage has a wide range and a fast frequency, which has played an important role in the salary growth of migrant workers.
Third, the education level and training of migrant workers themselves have been continuously improved, which has promoted the improvement of migrant workers’ salary level to some extent. In recent years, China has implemented a series of vocational skills upgrading plans for migrant workers. By the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the proportion of migrant workers who have received training has continued to increase, accounting for more than 35%.
In addition, the rapid increase in the salary level of migrant workers since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" is also a reasonable return to the abnormal phenomenon of long-term low salary of migrant workers. The wages of migrant workers have been hovering at a low level before 2008. In the Pearl River Delta and other places, the average monthly wages of migrant workers have only increased in 68 yuan in the past 10 years. According to the report, the rapid increase in the wages of migrant workers in the past few years is a "compensatory increase" to some extent, and it is also an objective reflection of the reality that the relationship between supply and demand in China’s labor market is undergoing profound changes and the cost of living in cities is rising rapidly.
Labor supply and demand determine that wages still have room to rise.
At present, there are still many unsatisfactory places in the salary of migrant workers.
The phenomenon of wage arrears for migrant workers has not been fundamentally solved. The construction industry is still a frequent place where wages of migrant workers are owed. What needs to be paid attention to is that the amount of wage arrears has increased a lot in recent years. In addition, migrant workers work long hours and work overtime seriously. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the average annual employment time of migrant workers is about 10 months, the average monthly employment time is more than 25 days, and the average daily employment time is about 8.8 hours. The number of migrant workers who work more than 44 hours per week stipulated in the Labor Law has been as high as 85%, and many migrant workers are forced to work overtime "voluntarily".
Some people believe that with the slowdown of economic growth, the time when the wages of workers, including migrant workers, are growing at a high speed is gone forever. What will happen to the wage growth of migrant workers in the future? According to the report of the Institute of Wages of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the wages of migrant workers in China still have a large room for improvement.
On the one hand, China’s economy will continue to grow at a certain speed, and the labor market will continue to release a considerable number of jobs. However, after years of large-scale and continuous transfer, China’s agricultural labor force has shown a trend of increasing the total amount and decreasing the growth rate. The rural labor force has changed from unlimited supply to limited supply, and it has moved towards equal supply and demand. This change in supply and demand will directly affect the wage income of migrant workers. On the other hand, China’s labor wage cost is still significantly lower than that of developed countries and some developing countries. Although it is higher than that of some neighboring countries in recent years, the labor productivity has increased rapidly in the same period and still has considerable advantages. Considering that the average monthly wage of migrant workers is only about 60% of the average monthly wage of urban workers, the project report predicts that the wage level of migrant workers will continue to increase in a certain proportion in the next few years, which is expected to reach about 10%. (Reporter Bai Tianliang)