This pod cast is the second of the series promoted by the project Strengthening China’s institutional capacity for universal protection. It presents and discusses obstacles and opportunities to expand social security for workers in the informal economy in China, the European Union (EU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) approach to formalisation.
While the coverage of urban employee social insurance has widened significantly in recent years in China, that for informal economy workers still lags behind compared to workers in the formal economy. The decentralisation of social insurance administration in China creates opportunities for service innovation and adaptation to local circumstances, but creates some practical barriers to further expand social insurance. The European Union Platform to tackle undeclared work has implemented in 2020 a campaign to improve the compliance of employers and workers to social security regulations through stricter enforcement, incentives and persuasion measures.
In this pod case, Dr Jiwei QIAN Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore and Dr Zhuoyi WEN Research Assistant Professor at the Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies, Lingnan University in Hong Kong, China present the findings of a research brief about the institutional constraints for social protection for workers in the informal economy in China.