Abstract
Researchers have attributed the low wages of Chinese female migrant workers to the independent effects of gender and hukou (household registration). Using an intersectional perspective that recognizes the interplay of gender, birthplace, and hukou, this paper identifies six different groups of workers in China’s urban labor market. Both in-depth interviews and survey data demonstrate that from 2003 to 2013, a decade seen as one of China’s continuous economic growth and rising income inequality, female migrant workers earned the lowest wages among the six groups, and their income disadvantages were more than double the disadvantages of gender and hukou combined. This trend was persistent during this decade even after the workers’ education, party membership, and labor market segregation were taken into account. These results imply a within-job wage differential for female migrant workers and a discriminatory wage policy that is tacitly observed by both state and private employers.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 246-269 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Asian Journal of Women's Studies |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 3 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant [2016M602789] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [SK2016018] to the first author; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant [2015M572538] to the second and corresponding author; and China’s National Social Science Foundation Grant [11AZD022] and [13ZD177] to the third author.
Keywords
- China
- Intersectionality
- female migrant workers
- hukou
- income inequality
- patriarchy
