Migrants to get equal welfare benefits next month

MIGRANT workers in Shanghai will be able to enjoy the same social welfare benefits as local employees starting next month, officials said today. The new measure, set to take effect on July 1, will require both migrant workers and their employers to pay social insurances that cover pension, health care and work injury, and it is bound to raise the labor costs of employers. Zhao Jiande, a municipal official in charge of migrant workers' affairs, told Shanghai Daily that a company now pays less than 300 yuan (US$46.36) a month for one migrant worker, but it will have to fork out nearly 600 yuan per worker. A migrant worker will also pay his or her share of the insurance cost. But the 600-yuan insurance cost will be the standard cost for a five-year transitional period until 2016. Afterwards, the payment will reach the same level as for local employees. More than 4.5 million migrant workers are now employed in Shanghai.

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