In the early days of the year, during the China-US balance sheet activity, netizens from both countries shared their income and daily living costs. After a comparison, everyone initiated a discussion on the “class division based on kinship”.
In fact, in recent years, discussions on topics related to working people have been very popular. For example, recently, JD.com’s takeaway and Meituan have been competing to announce their protection plans. JD.com’s takeaway provides five insurances and one housing fund for 10,000 riders, and yesterday it was announced that another 50,000 riders would be added. Meituan, on the other hand, has launched a pilot program for takeaway riders’ pension insurance subsidies in Quanzhou, Fujian and Nantong, Jiangsu. After nationwide promotion, it is expected to cover about one million people.
Whether takeaway riders should pay five insurances and one housing fund, and how to handle social security, everyone has different opinions. To be honest, the “Labor Law” has been implemented for 31 years, and there are still significant problems regarding the protection of workers. It is a good thing that the public is widely discussing this, and both companies’ plans are good explorations.
JD.com’s plan is relatively straightforward, and everyone knows it. Many people are criticizing Meituan for not following suit in paying five insurances and one housing fund. Da Xing will help everyone sort out Meituan’s plan.
Meituan’s plan states that as long as the monthly income of a takeaway rider reaches the lower limit of the payment base in the place of employment, and the rider meets this condition for three months within the past six months, Meituan will subsidize 50% of the pension insurance fees based on the relevant payment base.
For example, the minimum monthly payment base for flexible employment personnel participating in pension insurance in Quanzhou is 4433 yuan. Calculated at a payment ratio of 20%, the amount is 886.6 yuan. After Meituan’s subsidy, riders can receive 443.3 yuan in cash.
Earning more than 4,000 yuan a month is not difficult for riders, and they can get subsidies if they run orders for half the time within six months. They can pay in the city where they run orders, or they can pay in their hometown. The company provides half of the cash subsidy.
From the perspective of the threshold, it is very low. So why not pay all five insurances and one housing fund? Because it’s not realistic.
It is not difficult for JD.com’s takeaway to provide five insurances and one housing fund for 60,000 full-time riders, but in the internal meeting video of JD.com that “leaked” yesterday, Dong Ge also said, “It is impossible to immediately provide five insurances and one housing fund for all takeaway riders. First, provide it for a small portion of full-time riders who come every day.”
You must know that in addition to these 60,000 full-time riders, JD.com’s Dada also has more than 1.2 million riders. What if we look at the whole country? There are takeaway riders:
10 million people.
Providing for 60,000 people, 1 million people, or even 10 million people, is a completely different concept.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total number of employed persons in China at the end of 2024 is 734 million. Currently, the item with the fewest participants in the five insurances and one housing fund is the housing provident fund, with 174 million people paying nationwide. Based on this, the proportion of Chinese employed persons with complete five insurances and one housing fund is only:
23.7%。
Why has the implementation rate of five insurances and one housing fund been so low after so many years of the “Labor Law”? The reason is simple: the threshold is too high.
Huang Qifan calculated that the current comprehensive fee rate of five insurances and one housing fund for Chinese enterprises and institutions is 55%, which is the highest in the world. The burden is not only unsatisfactory for enterprises, but also for employees. The reason is simple: the cash they receive is significantly reduced, and the place where everyone works is not necessarily the place where they will retire in the future.
In addition to the fixed employment relationship between enterprises and employees, a large number of gig workers cannot accept it. For example, Da Xing saw a video a few days ago, where a group of aunts were working as porters in a vegetable market, earning about 100 yuan a day. If you ask them to operate as a company and then deduct a few hundred yuan from them each month to pay five insurances and one housing fund, they are likely to be unwilling.
The job of a takeaway rider or rider is indeed seen by most people as a transitional job. To put it bluntly, everyone is basically aiming for flexibility, autonomy, and earning more by working more. They want to earn more money by running more orders, and they can rest if they don’t want to deliver. They can also go back to their hometown after running for a few months.
If both parties formally sign a contract and pay all five insurances and one housing fund, then will the assessment mechanism and reward and punishment mechanism change? To give the simplest example, according to the “Labor Law”, the working hours are 40 hours per week. Is overtime calculated? Should the delivery guys who deliver takeaways on holidays get three times the bonus?
Do you think they should? Da Xing also thinks they should.
Let’s take JD.com as an example. Assuming that 1.3 million riders pay five insurances and one housing fund, JD.com’s headquarters is in Beijing. Based on the lower limit of the payment wage base of 6821 yuan and the housing provident fund ratio of 5% for both individuals and enterprises, the joint cost of individuals and enterprises is about 3232.52 yuan/month. The monthly increase in cost is approximately:
4.349 billion yuan.
JD.com’s net profit last year was 41.4 billion yuan. Okay, so we all know that JD.com is going to lose money. So who will ultimately pay for this extra labor cost, overtime pay, and bonuses? Huh?
If you don’t pay, and I don’t pay, the takeaway riders will lose their jobs. It’s not just China. Deliveroo and Uber abroad have tried to turn all gig riders into full-time riders, and they all failed, so this approach is not sustainable. Moreover, there are also crowd-sourced riders who want to work for a short period. What if they want to leave after signing a contract?
Da Xing saw a comment from a takeaway rider a few days ago, saying that he had been running takeaways for eight years and changed five cities, “It’s a pain in the ass to get medical insurance reimbursement now.“
Any plan involving the interests of a group can only take care of the interests of some people in the group. In “The Wasted Times”, Ge You had to swallow his saliva and refuse Zhang Ziyi’s request to elope:
I have too many people to take care of.
Since everyone needs takeaways, the riders need to make money, and the companies need to survive and operate, we can’t just make a decision on the spot. We need a feasible plan.
Meituan’s subsidy plan doesn’t seem so perfect, but the core is to let more people have basic pension security first. I asked some riders who are already in Meituan’s pilot cities, just to know what they think.
Xiao Gao is from Sichuan and has been a takeaway rider in Quanzhou for 4 years, with a monthly income between 6,000 and 8,000 yuan. His expenses include 2,000 yuan for a mortgage in his hometown, 1,800 yuan for a car loan, and about 1,100 yuan for rent, with a fixed monthly expenditure of nearly 5,000 yuan. Xiao Gao pays social security for urban and rural residents in his hometown, and he also bought two critical illness insurance policies, paying more than 600 yuan in premiums each month. Regarding flexible employment social security, Xiao Gao said that Meituan paying half of the money is good, and he doesn’t pay it now, but first pays off the car loan, and then pays social security in three years.
Xiao Liu from Nantong has been running takeaways for 7 years. He said that he is most concerned about pension and medical care in the five insurances and one housing fund, because work-related injury has been replaced by new occupational injury insurance since 2022. Pension provides security for his future, and the burden of medical payment is not so heavy. He didn’t consider paying social security before, hoping to have more cash on hand. If he pays, he can pay a maximum of six or seven hundred yuan per month. He pays first, and the company subsidizes at a 50% ratio, which is also acceptable.
Worker protection plans are never achieved overnight. In July 2022, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, together with 8 other ministries and commissions, jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Protecting the Labor Security Rights and Interests of Workers in New Forms of Employment”. The first and second clauses clearly state that for those who do not fully meet the establishment of a labor relationship but the enterprise still manages the workers, both parties can clarify reasonable responsibilities and obligations and establish an incomplete labor relationship. This clause is called “Labor Division of Three” by the Chinese.
What is this? This is the official view that everything should combine theory and practice, and also adapt to the development of the times.
A while ago, many scholars proposed that social security for flexible employment should explore more flexible and inclusive plans. Da Xing believes that no matter which company or plan, it is a good thing as long as it can continuously improve under public supervision.
The only difference lies in whether to provide “basic” welfare for a few people or to provide better basic protection for more people under the limited social resources. This requires trial and error and testing.
This is not a moral issue, but a market issue. What do you think, potential riders?
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.