The Impact Of Labor Contracts On Migrant Workers' Labor Remuneration

Since the 1980 s,a large number of rural labor forces have flocked to cities and became an important part of the urban labor market,which has played a crucial role in the rapid economic development of China.However,due to the lower level of human capital of migrant workers and the impact of household registration discrimination,the stability of migrant workers' work is relatively poor,the level of labor remuneration is low,and there is a serious urban-rural income gap.Therefore,how to improve the employment stability and the level of labor remuneration for migrant workers and protect the legal rights of migrant workers has always been one of the most important issues of labor economics.On June 29,2007,the National People's Congress passed the "Labor Contract Law".It requires employer and employee to sign labor contracts when establishing labor relations.The implementation of the "Labor Contract Law" has strengthened the supervision of enterprises,and especially provided legal protection for migrant workers.Then,will the signing of a labor contract affect the labor remuneration of migrant workers? How big is the degree of influence? This article first systematically introduces the theory of labor contracts and the theory of wage differences.Secondly,it empirically examines the empirical research methods and findings of the impact of labor contracts between European countries and China,and finally applies microeconomic measures to research the influence factors of the labor contracts in China.This paper will provide a systematic and in-depth analysis of the impact of migrant workers on labor remuneration.The theory of compensatory wage differences holds that under the completely competitive labor market conditions,the utility level of workers is determined by the level of labor remuneration and the non-monetary characteristics associated with job.Therefore,due to the existence of differences in job characteristics,the level of labor remuneration paid for jobs with the same level of utility may be different.The job that signed labor contract is characterized by good stability and low unemployment risk,so the level of labor remuneration is relatively low.On the contrary,the level of labor remuneration for the job that has not signed a labor contract is relatively high.The theory of human capital investment believes that differences in the characteristics of laborers' own human capital will lead to differences in labor remuneration.The theory of special human capital investment believes that the signing of labor contracts will affect the decision-making of specific human capital investment,thereby affecting the labor remuneration of employees signing and not signing labor contracts.Labor market segmentation theory believes that migrant workers who sign labor contracts is equivalent to “insider”,and migrant workers who don't sign labor contracts is equivalent to “onsider”.Because of the existence of hiring and firing costs,“insiders” have a labor reward advantage,so they obtain a higher labor remuneration than “outsiders”.The probation period theory holds that fixed-term(short-term)labor contracts can extend the probation period,there is information asymmetry in the labor market,and the labor unit cannot recognize labor productivity of migrant workers.The employer can sign a fixed-term labor contract to extend the probation period,and pay lower labor remuneration,and pay higher labor remuneration after satisfying productivity requirements(signing a long-term labor contract).Since the implementation of the "Labor Contract Law," the academic community has discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the law extensively,but the overwhelming majority of them have studied the legal level of legislation and applicability,and few scholars have systematically analyzed the effects of their labor remuneration.As China's labor market is not mature,there are obvious differences in the signing of labor contracts with Western developed countries.Therefore,according to China's actual situation,examining the impact of the labor contract on the migrant workers' labor remuneration and proposing reasonable policy suggestion will provide basis for the formulation and revision of the labor market system in China.Firstly,based on the double-sample selection bias correction model and the corresponding wage differential decomposition method,according to the eight cities survey data in 2013,the labor remuneration between migrant workers signing labor contracts and not signing labor contracts is analyzed.The results indicate that there is a clear correlation between employment selection and labor contract selection,and the signing of a labor contract can promote the employment of migrant workers.The labor remuneration for migrant workers who signing labor contract is significantly higher than migrant workers who not signing labor contract.The signing of a labor contract is the main reason for the difference in labor remuneration of the two categories of migrant workers.The signing of a labor contract will result in a 15% and 31% increase in the labor remuneration of male and female migrant workers respectively.Therefore,raising the labor contract signing rate can significantly increase the employment rate and labor remuneration level of migrant workers.Secondly,a sample selection method based on propensity score matching was used to screen the samples.The Horvitz-Thompson estimator was used to measure long-term labor contracts and short-term labor contracts for migrant workers according to the survey data of migrant workers in the 2007 China Family Income Survey.The results indicate that the signing of long-term labor contracts will increase the labor remuneration of female and male migrant workers by 20.29% and 11.76% respectively.Signing a short-term labor contract will increase the labor remuneration of female and male migrant workers by 10.86% and 5.48% respectively.The positive impact of labor contracts on the migrant workers' labor remuneration is due to the fact that labor contracts can help to raise the wages of migrant workers.On the other hand,labor contracts can significantly improve the social security of migrant workers.Thirdly,based on the unconditional quantiles of labor contracts,the parametric and non-parametric models of the effects were processed,and based on the data of the eight cities survey data for 2014,the distribution of labor contracts to migrant workers was analyzed.The results show that from the 10 th to 80 th points of labor remuneration,the labor contract has a significant role in promoting the growth of labor remuneration for migrant workers.The signing of the labor contract lead to an average increase of 5.19% in the hourly labor remuneration of migrant workers.With the increase in the quantiles,the signing of labor contracts has gradually reduced the growth of migrant workers' labor remuneration.At the 10 th quartile,the labor contract lead to an increase of 10.64% in hourly labor remuneration for migrant workers;At the 80 th quartile,the labor contract results in an increase of 4.91% in the hourly labor remuneration of migrant workers.For high-income groups(groups of migrant workers at the 90 th quantile or higher),the labor contract has no significant effect on labor remuneration.Therefore,the supervision of government agencies should improve implement the "Labor Contract Law" and increase the signing rate of labor contracts,which will not only contribute to a significant increase in the level of migrant workers' labor remuneration but also help to significantly reduce the internal labor remuneration gap of migrant workers.Fourth,based on the fusion data of the eight cities in the dynamic monitoring survey data of 2013 and 2014,using the multi-tier Logit regression model selected by labor contracts,the impact of marketization on the signing of labor contracts for migrant workers was analyzed.The multi-level linear regression model of the equation analyzes the impact of labor contracts and marketization on the labor remuneration of migrant workers.There are the direct and mediation effects of marketization on labor remuneration of migrant workers through labor contracts.The results show that for every unit increase in the marketization index,the occurrence of labor contracts of male and female migrant workers will increase by 38.98% and 37.05% respectively.The labor contracts will result in male and female migrant workers' labor remuneration raise 14.55% and 17.83% respectively.For every one unit increase in marketization index,the labor remuneration of male and female migrant workers will increase by 7.18% and 6.69% respectively,of which 5.85% and 1.33% of the labor remuneration increasing for male migrant workers are due to direct and mediation effects.From the direct effecs of marketization and the mediation effect of labor contract signing,and 5.19% and 1.50% of the increase in labor remuneration for female migrant workers respectively originate from the direct effect of marketization and the indirect effect of labor contract signing.Therefore,the government departments actively promote the process of marketization,and urge employers to implement the "Labor Contract Law," which will help the migrant workers to significantly increase the level of labor remuneration.Fifth,according to the data of the eight cities' survey data in 2013 and 2014,the multi-layer linear regression model and the wage difference decomposition method are applied to the gender differences in wages of migrant workers.The results show that the signing of labor contracts can significantly increase the wage level of migrant workers and reduce the wage discrimination of migrant workers.With the deepening of the marketization process,the wage of migrant workers continues to increase,and wage discrimination is gradually declining.At the same time,in the process of marketization,the wage premium of male migrant workers' labor contracts has gradually decreased,while the labor contract wage premium of female migrant workers has not changed significantly,indicating that with the deepening of market-oriented reforms and the labor contract will make the gender wage discrimination gradually decline.Therefore,government departments should strictly supervise employers to implement the "Labor Contract Law" and sign labor contracts with migrant workers to improve the employment stability of migrant workers and raise the wage of migrant workers,reducing gender wage discrimination,then reshape harmony and stability labor relationships.At the same time,government departments should continue to accelerate the process of marketization and continuously alleviate wage discrimination against female migrant workers.This is an important way to reduce gender wage discrimination.Finally,based on the eight cities data in 2013 and 2014,this paper applies Logit regression model and propensity score matching method to analyze the factors influencing the signing of different labor contracts and labor remuneration effect of different labor contract.Further,this paper also analyzes the wages and labor remuneration premiums of labor contracts for migrant workers of different levels of education.The results show that the factors affecting the signing of labor contracts for migrant workers are mainly marital status,education level,training status,and the type of ownership of the company.The labor contract has a significant positive effect on the labor remuneration of migrant workers.However,the premium for a fixed-term labor contract is higher than permanent contract.The higher the level of educated migrant workers,the higher the labor contract's wage and labor remuneration premium.Therefore,from the perspective of the employer,government departments should increase supervision of private and individual enterprises,urge them to sign labor contracts with migrant workers,strictly implement the "Labor Contract Law," and promote the stable employment of migrant workers,and improve migrant workers' labor remuneration.From the perspective of the employee,the government departments should vigorously carry out education and training in rural areas,promote more migrant workers to receive higher education.In the aspect of training,increasing the vocational skills training and promoting the signing of labor contracts for migrant workers groups will further increase the labor remuneration and the rate of social security and narrow the urban-rural income gap.