So, the clown is actually me.
By / Youyou Luming
Last week, as the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were nearing their closing, Zhang Quanshou, an NPC deputy, presented a proposal to various institutions: “It is recommended to allow migrant workers over 60 years old to continue working”.
This was forwarded to me by a friend, and my first reaction was: Huh, are there representatives who don’t speak human language again?
What does it mean to “allow migrant workers over 60 years old to continue working”? Do migrant workers need to be allowed to work? Are migrant workers over 60 still working because they don’t want to enjoy a peaceful life at home and want to exercise on the construction site? What do they eat if they don’t work? Who gives them money?
However, I immediately realized that I was naive and didn’t understand the reality at all.
The real situation is: many construction sites have access control, and migrant workers over 60 years old cannot get access cards, so even if the contractor wants to use them, they cannot enter the site. In other words: migrant workers over 60 really need to be allowed to work.
For example, by searching, I saw that a video blogger working for a labor company posted a video on March 5 (just a week before the representative proposed the suggestion) saying: The meeting has just ended, and the boss clearly stated that workers over 60 are not allowed to enter the site for operations. In the comment section, there are also many comments from various places saying “cannot get access cards over 60 and cannot find work”:
So, the suggestion made by this NPC deputy hits the nail on the head.
So, the clown is actually me.
In reality, how do migrant workers operate? They use other people’s ID cards, or they settle in cash secretly. But in this way, because of the violation, it leads to increased operational difficulty, and the income will be lower.
So, is it reasonable for the construction site to do this? Yes. Migrant workers over 60 years old are indeed not as physically strong as young migrant workers in their thirties and forties, and they are relatively prone to accidents. If something goes wrong, the construction site will have to bear greater accident expenses. They refuse migrant workers over 60 is a rational consideration.
This involves the issue of work injury insurance. Because migrant workers over 60 years old are often not allowed to apply for work injury insurance, or rather, many migrant workers are not covered by work injury insurance. If the insurance can cover them, then the construction site will not operate like this. They will even be more willing to hire some experienced workers, because many jobs require rich experience.
Related to this is the issue of the “Labor Contract Law”. Are migrant workers over 60 years old in a “labor relationship” or a “labor relationship” with the construction unit?
So, in the final analysis, it is a problem of the labor security system.
Of course, it is too extravagant to discuss the Labor Law with migrant workers.
The “Statistical Communiqué of the 2025 National Economic and Social Development” released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the total number of migrant workers in China has exceeded 300 million, of which, about 60% are migrant workers who go out to work, reaching 180 million, mainly engaged in manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, transportation, warehousing and postal services, accommodation and catering, and residential service repair industries. These 300 million people are the foundation of China becoming the “world factory”. That’s right, they are the “demographic dividend” in economics, but if we let them be just a “labor dividend”, how can we bear it?
It involves 300 million people, which is really a big deal.
A trend that cannot be ignored is: In recent years, the average age of migrant workers is gradually rising. In 2024, the average age of migrant workers is 43.2 years old. They are getting older and older, and finally, they will face the question of whether they can still enter the construction site at the age of 60.
Therefore, the suggestion of Representative Zhang Quanshou is aimed at both the present and the future.
The name “migrant worker” itself is very unique: it is not a specific job, but an identity, the identity of “peasant” – although they are workers, their identity is peasant. The most critical connotation of the identity of peasants is: migrant workers receive the basic rural pension (currently one or two hundred yuan a month) after “retirement”, rather than the “pension” of workers. In other words, they are simply not allowed to “retire”, and they cannot survive once they stop working. If they cannot retire and are not allowed to enter the construction site, where do they go? They can only go to the one-third of an acre of land in the countryside.
However, nowadays, the urbanization process in China has greatly improved, and a large number of peasants have entered the city. Can they still go back to the countryside? Even if it is one-third of an acre of land, is farming enough to live a good life? If farming can live a good life, there would not be 300 million people working as migrant workers.
Writing this, the suggestion of Representative Zhang Quanshou makes me feel more and more sad.
Perhaps some experts who don’t speak human language will say: “Low-income families can rent out their vacant houses”, or “use private cars to run ride-hailing services”…
It is the ignorance of the social reality of many so-called “elites” and “experts” in our society that leads us to long-term neglect of the plight of migrant workers, even the problems faced by hundreds of millions of families. Many people, including me, have no sense of it. This is the “elephant in the room”.
I noticed that Zhang Quanshou is the Party Branch Secretary and Director of the Villagers’ Committee of Guizi Yang Village, Zhuli Town, Shangcai County, Henan Province, and is a representative from the countryside.
I am very happy that there are still people speaking for migrant workers during the Two Sessions, but I hope even more that this is the last time that a suggestion like “allowing migrant workers over 60 to work” that makes people feel sad and difficult to accept appears. To this end, what really needs to be done at present are two things: first, to review and sort out the social security system, and second, to align the labor security benefits for all citizens, to treat workers with actual work rather than identity, and to realize the spirit of the Constitution of equality for all.
May everyone who wants to work have a satisfactory job.
Youyou Luming 20260319
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