1 September, 2015
Adjustment of social insurance premium for work-related injuries
As provided by the Notice on Adjustment of Social Insurance Premium for Work-Related Injury, as issued by the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance (the "Notice") on 22 July 2015, the work-related injury insurance premium will be adjusted in China as of 1 October 2015.
The premium is based on the risk-level attributed to a certain industry. Previously industries were split into three categories. However, the Notice has increased this to eight. The first category, which includes industries such as IT, financial and insurance services, will carry the lowest risk-level and therefore, the lowest premium. The eighth category, which includes industries such as coal mining and metal mining, will carry the highest risk-level, and therefore the highest premium. The premiums for the eight categories will approximately be as follows:
|
Category |
Premium rate |
|
1 |
0.2 |
|
2 |
0.4 |
|
3 |
0.7 |
|
4 |
0.9 |
|
5 |
1.1 |
|
6 |
1.3 |
|
7 |
1.6 |
|
8 |
1.9 |
The premium payment adopts floating rates. For the 1st category of industries, there are three levels of rate, the basic rate and 120% and 150% of the basic rate. From the 2nd category to 8th category, there are 5 levels of rate, the basic rate and 120%, 150%, 80% and 50% of the basic rate. The local labour authority will determine the basic rate with the finance department. They will also jointly decide the premium for the area and the premium payment rate for the local enterprises according to their use of insurance coverage, frequency of injury accidents and the damages of occupational diseases.
Reduction in Maternity Insurance Premium
On 27 July 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance issued the Notice on Reasonably Reducing Maternity Insurance Premium (the "Notice"). Pursuant to the Notice, from 1 October 2015, the maternity insurance premium rate will be adjusted from 1% to 0.5% (or less) of the total salaries of the employees of any given enterprise. The specific rate will be determined by the balance of the government's maternity insurance fund in the recent years.
Adjustment of Social Average Salaries
Recently a number of key cities in China have released their adjusted social average salaries, for the purposes of calculating social insurance and severance payments. The figures can be seen below:
|
Shanghai |
Beijing |
Guangzhou |
Shenzhen |
Tianjin |
Chengdu |
Wuhan |
|
5451 |
6463 |
6187 |
6054 |
4686 |
4307 |
4331.67 |
Expectation of the Rollout of the Two-Children Policy
As reported on Yicai.com, an anonymous disclosure was made to a reporter of China Business News by an individual who is engaged in policy research that the National Family Planning Council (the "Council") have started evaluating and driving the rollout of the two-children policy for all Chinese couples. The individual indicated that if the process went smoothly, the new policy was expected to be implemented by the end of 2015.
The Chinese birth-control policy has slowly been transforming over time. Previously, there was an entitlement of two children to a couple who were both single children. This changed to a couple where only one of them needed to be a single child and now, according to the disclosure, the policy is in the course of rolling out the entitlement to two children to any couple in China, regardless of whether they were single children or not. This increased liberal stance is a result of the government seeking to tackle the issue of the ageing population. The latest statistics released by the Council show that the amount of individuals under the age of 14 in 2014 amounted to 16.5% of the total population in China, a figure which had decreased by 0.1% since 2010. In contrast, the amount of people over the age of 60 continues to rise and in 2014 amounted to 15.5% of the total Chinese population, which reflects a 2.2% increase when compared to figures collected in 2010.
Compensation for overtime work on 3 September 2015
Back in May the government officially declared 3 September 2015 as a public holiday to mark the 70th anniversary of Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War and the World Anti-Fascist War Victory Commemoration Day. On 18 August 2015 the State Council issued another notice which sets out the requirements of paying overtime to staff working on the day. In accordance with the notice, employers must pay staff their usual salary for the overtime work and provide compensatory leave afterwards. If the employer fails to arrange the compensatory leave, they must pay staff 200% of their daily or hourly salary.
For further information, please contact:
Lesley Maclou, Partner, Bird & Bird
lesley.maclou@twobirds.com
