Wage Exploitation: Protests as an Emerging Strategy in Chinese Society

Abstract

Wage exploitation by employers is regarded as the most severe problem migrant workers face during their employment, especially in the construction sector. Although a circular on protecting migrant workers’ wages was promulgated in 2004, it fails to protect migrant workers’ legal rights because few migrant workers took administrative coping for a legal claim. Employers’ exploitative behaviors over migrant workers’ wages include keeping deposit, packet payments, incomplete wages, and non-payment. When facing the first three cases of wage exploitation, migrant workers adopt social coping, that is, try to negotiate with employers. If the negotiation cannot be reached, they often give up and suffer the loss silently instead of taking further action. However, if the amount of unpaid wage is significant for migrant workers, they may adopt various coping strategies, for example, more and more migrant workers have begun to take political coping, such as protests or strikes.