Compulsory pension insurance begins to cover all migrant workers in Beijing

Beginning in January 2010, pension insurance for migrant workers will now be in line with the standard of urban workers. Then, the number of types of compulsory insurance for migrant workers will increase to three, including pension insurance, previous employment injury insurance and critical illness insurance. Recently, the Beijing Municipal Social Insurance Center published a notice saying that in order to make sure that migrant workers can enjoy the benefits of the pension insurance system just as urban workers do, all companies with migrant workers, and the migrant workers themselves, must pay pension insurance premiums. Reporters learned that this policy will affect around a million people.

Migrant workers start to pay for their pension insurance

Reporters learned that the “Supplementary Notice on the Relevant Issues for Migrant Workers Participating in Pension Insurance,” published by the municipal social insurance center, requires that from 2010 on, basic pension insurance will become one of the types of insurance that migrant workers will need to have.

Reporters learned that in the past, companies that hired migrant workers must pay two types of insurance for them, including employment injury insurance and critical illness insurance. For these two types of insurance, companies must pay the full premiums for the migrant workers, and the migrant workers did not need to pay any money. Now, pension insurance has become a compulsory form of insurance for migrant workers, meaning that most migrant workers will deduct a part of their salary to pay a part of their pension insurance premiums. In the future, as long as migrant workers have paid for the pension insurance according to regulations, no matter where they are from, they will be able to enjoy equal treatment after they retire, just as urban workers do.

The premiums for migrant workers are equal to that for urban workers'

Reporters learned that the supplementary notice clearly states that migrant workers contributions to the pension insurance will be in line with the standard at which urban workers contribute. The payment base will be determined according to the migrant workers' actual wages. The minimum payment base is 40 percent of Beijing's average social wage in 2009, and the upper limit is 300 percent of the wage. According to Beijing's actual average social wage in 2009, the lower limit of the payment base is 1,490 yuan and the upper limit of the base is 11,178 yuan.

In regards to how the pension insurance premiums should be paid, according to the "Provisions on the Basic Pension Insurance for Beijing "a company should take the sum of all their urban workers’ base pay, and pay 20 percent of the sum; an individual should take his/her average monthly wage from the previous year as their base pay, and pay 8 percent of this base amount. According to these calculations, after a migrant worker participates in the pension insurance, the minimum pension insurance payment will be 119.2 yuan and the maximum will be 894.2 yuan.

For migrant workers who already participate in the pension insurance plan, their payments will be adjusted

Reporters learned that except for those not working full time, all other migrant workers employed by companies with this insurance will be included in the adjustment. Beijing Municipal Social Insurance Center said that those migrant workers, who have been paying for other forms of insurance, except for the endowment insurance, have now begun to pay this form of insurance before the end of January. The endowment insurance base payment amount will be determined in accordance with their actual income. The endowment insurance base payment for those migrant workers who have been paying their endowment insurance according to the minimum income (currently 800 yuan), has been uniformly adjusted before the end of January according to their actual income. According to sources, the adjustment does not affect unemployment or maternity insurance.