zhōng guó中国jiā qiáng加强shè bǎo社保jiǎo fèi缴费guǎn lǐ管理，qǐ yè企业hé和yuán gōng员工dān xīn担心fù dān负担jiā zhòng加重
Starting November 1, China will implement new regulations: companies that fail to pay the full amount of social insurance contributions on time may be fined one to three times the amount they underpaid or failed to pay.
Social insurance, commonly called “social security,” includes pension and medical insurance. It can provide support when people retire, become ill, or lose their jobs.
Both companies and employees need to make contributions.
The new regulations apply the same punishment standards to companies across the country, in the hope of ensuring that more people have financial protection.
However, some companies and employees worry that business is currently poor and that paying these contributions will make life more difficult.
A user from Anhui said that his company gave employees two choices: receive lower wages and pay social security contributions, or switch to temporary work.
A business owner in Beijing also worries that, to save money, companies may reduce their number of employees or replace permanent workers with temporary ones.
However, some users also support the new regulations, believing that companies must be required to make contributions so that more people can have social security coverage.
Li Qiang, head of China Labour Watch, said that requiring everyone to participate in social security has benefits, but some workers’ wages are so low that they genuinely cannot afford the contributions.
How to protect employees’ future lives without making their present lives more difficult is the challenge facing this change.