In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: a typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination
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Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT)
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| Format: | Artículo científico |
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International Labour Organization
2025
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| _version_ | 1874524914002690048 |
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| author | Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) |
| author_facet | Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) |
| contents | In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: a typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) The employment status of platform workers has generated debate both in China and internationally. Drawing on legal thresholds from selected developed countries and statistical indicators developed by Eurofound and Eurostat, our study constructs context-specific indicators for identifying quasi-subordinate workers in the Chinese labour market. Between December 2021 and January 2022, we distributed online questionnaires in five Chinese cities to measure the subordination levels of 7,680 platform gig riders. Workers were classified into subtypes based on two dimensions: economic dependency and personal subordination. Our results indicate that only around 19 per cent of gig riders can be classified into the existing “employee versus independent worker” binary framework, while the rest should be grouped into a new “quasi-subordinate” worker category. Statistical analysis reveals significant differences in working conditions across subgroups. Our results suggest that high economic dependency is a predictor for longer working hours, greater work intensity and increased perceived pressure, while high personal subordination is related to low job satisfaction. Social insurance coverage is found to be particularly inadequate among subgroups with higher levels of subordination. 10.16995/ilr.23784 DOI https://doi.org/10.16995/ilr.23784 publication.journalArticle |
| format | Artículo científico |
| id | ilo_995683250102676 |
| institution | Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | International Labour Organization |
| spellingShingle | In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: a typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: a typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination Wei Tu (Author) Xueyu Wang (Author) The employment status of platform workers has generated debate both in China and internationally. Drawing on legal thresholds from selected developed countries and statistical indicators developed by Eurofound and Eurostat, our study constructs context-specific indicators for identifying quasi-subordinate workers in the Chinese labour market. Between December 2021 and January 2022, we distributed online questionnaires in five Chinese cities to measure the subordination levels of 7,680 platform gig riders. Workers were classified into subtypes based on two dimensions: economic dependency and personal subordination. Our results indicate that only around 19 per cent of gig riders can be classified into the existing “employee versus independent worker” binary framework, while the rest should be grouped into a new “quasi-subordinate” worker category. Statistical analysis reveals significant differences in working conditions across subgroups. Our results suggest that high economic dependency is a predictor for longer working hours, greater work intensity and increased perceived pressure, while high personal subordination is related to low job satisfaction. Social insurance coverage is found to be particularly inadequate among subgroups with higher levels of subordination. 10.16995/ilr.23784 DOI https://doi.org/10.16995/ilr.23784 publication.journalArticle |
| title | In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: a typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination |
| url | https://researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/In-search-of-quasi-subordinate-workers-in/995683250102676 |