GRSJ224/Women-labour-in-China
Women in the labour market in China
China is one of the biggest developing country in the world. In the past 30 years, China obtained the great economic growth. Every year, China created 10.2% unprecedented job opportunities for the male and female. Since 1978, over 500 thousand of people reached to the better living standard from the poverty. However, the gender gap in the labour market increased appeared with the expansion of labour market, in particular the participation rate and the oncome level. There are very big differences between male and female in the employment and wage .
In China, women's wages are generally lower than men's, but the gap is narrowing trend. Data from the China Household Income Survey (CHIP) in 1995, 2002, 2007 and 2013 show that, in 1995, gender - to - income ratio was 85.9 %; in 2002, it was 84.5%; in 2007, the gender wage gap widened further, while the gender - to - income ratio declined to 73.9%; in 2013, the gender - to - income rose to 78.2%. This shows that although gender wages have fluctuated over the years, overall, the situation that women's income is lower than men's income has not been changed, and there is an expansion trend in the last decade.
The Reasons of Employer 's Control of Cost on Female Employment in China
In a market economy, the company is seeking profit maximization. When the company hires labor, it requires the minimum cost of employment to obtain the greatest benefits. However, the employment cost of the female labor in China is higher than that of the male in general. On the one hand, women create lower economic value than men in company. Therefore, the company prefers men under the same conditions in the recruitment. On the other hand, the employment cost of female labor in the growth period is large, which will affect the employment of women, especially in some industries which are required to work consecutively and where women can not compete with men. The birth of the next generation is the vocation of women and it is an irresistible natural law. However it affects the continuity of female employment. In general, Chinese female face with the issue of childbearing after working for 2-5 years. Women were not able to work at most of the time from the pregnancy to the end of lactation.
2016 China's Labor Market Development Report 2016 China's labor market development report is made by Beijing Normal University labor market center organization. This report shows that China's female labor participation rate continues to decline, but still higher than the world average. In the process of promoting gender equality, Chinese women's employment is confronted with new opportunities and many challenges and problems. At the same time, the two-child policy has a negative impact on women's employment
Over the past decade, China's labor market changes is characterized by a steady decline in labor participation rate, of which female labor participation rate fell faster than men. However, compared with the world average level, China's female labor participation rate is still relatively high. In 2014, Chinese women's labor force participation rate was still about 14 percentage points higher than the average level of women's labor participation rate (50.3%). China's female labor participation rate is lower than the male, but the gap is far less than the world average.
Two-child policy has a negative influence on female employment In the context of the fierce competition in the labor market and increasing childbearing cost in China, the implementation of a comprehensive two-child policy will negatively influence on women's participation in career development. Some employers are not willing to recruit married women who are likely to have two babies in order to avoid the increase in labor costs during maternity leave. Even some companies set the recruitment regulation that male only or male first at recruitment. Some of women in the period of pregnancy and childbirth lose the vocational training and promotion opportunities which limit their career development. Some women in pregnancy are advised even forced to abortion, or the company will license the pregnant women. In addition, for some women who do not work for a longer time due to maternity, they have not obtained the adequate vocational training and it is difficult to reemploy for them when they return to the labor market.