Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China

The guarantee for remuneration for labor, right to equal pay for equal work, right to rest and leisure, right to occupational safety and health, right to join in and organize a labor union, and right to participate in the democratic management of businesses and public institutions are protected by law, as is women workers' right to special protection. Universal mechanisms to adjust and assess the minimum wage have been established across the country, so as to ensure the basic living conditions of workers and their dependents. At present, each worker is entitled to 115 rest days and public holidays, and 5 to 15 days of paid holidays each year, as well as maternity leave, wedding leave, funeral leave and family reunion leave in line with the regulations. The number of primary-level labor unions rose from 207,000 in 1952 to 2.73 million in 2018 and their members grew from 10 million to 295 million during the same period.

China has established a social security system that covers the largest population in the world. There was no social security system in China when the PRC was founded. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the state and employers began providing labor protection and other forms of welfare, and rural collectives provided peasants with a certain level of social security. After launching reform and opening up China gradually set up the world's largest social security system covering people of both rural and urban areas. It has continued to make improvements. By March 2019 basic endowment insurance covered 941 million people, work-related injury insurance 239 million, unemployment insurance 197 million, and birth insurance more than 200 million. The basic medical insurance system, including basic medical insurance for workers and for rural and non-working urban residents, now covers more than 1.3 billion people-almost China's entire population. China has substantially raised the amount of the basic pension of enterprise retirees every year since 2005. Per capita government subsidies for basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents rose from RMB240 in 2012 to RMB520 in 2019. China pioneered a long-term nursing insurance system in 2016. China is improving its capacity to offer social security services. In 2016, it launched a real-time settlement of medical expenses for medical treatment incurred outside the provincial-level administrative area where the patient's medical insurance is registered, and this benefited a growing number of people. By March 2019, there were about 1.25 billion social security card holders, covering 89.6 percent of China's population.