Explore each chapter to understand the effort, benefits and context.
This chapter counts money: how payments, signatures and deadlines work. The first three entries cover entitlements while employed, the next six departure, and the following entries occupational disease, injury and workplace mistreatment. Injury benefits can be much larger than severance, with stricter deadlines. Occupational damage cannot simply be bought back. All employment laws, benefits, deadlines and RMB amounts below concern China.
Chinese weekday overtime is paid at least 150% of wages; rest-day work without compensatory leave at least 200%; statutory-holiday work at least 300%, without substituting time off. Complain to labor inspection if unpaid. After an official payment deadline is missed, an additional 50%–100% of the sum due can be ordered.
In China, total service of 1 to under 10 years gives 5 days annually; 10 to under 20 gives 10; 20 or more gives 15. Changing jobs does not reset service. If work prevents leave and you agree not to take it, eligible untaken days receive 300% daily pay, including normal pay. A written personal-choice waiver can leave only ordinary wages.
Chinese contracts of 3 months to under 1 year allow at most 1 month's probation; 1 to under 3 years allow 2 months; at least 3 years or an open-ended contract allow 6. An employer cannot restart probation after a transfer. Probation wages must meet the statutory same-role/80%-of-agreed-pay rule and the local minimum wage.
Chinese statutory severance generally gives one month's wage per completed service year, rounding 6–under 12 months to a year and less than 6 months to half a month. Use the preceding 12-month average including bonuses and allowances. For wages above three times the locality's preceding-year employee average, use that three-times cap and at most 12 service years.
Where China's Labor Contract Law Article 40 applies, the employer must give 30 days' written notice or an extra month's wage. This additional amount is separate from N and is commonly called N+1 when both apply. List it separately in negotiations.
An unlawful termination can require 2N under Chinese law. Whether it is unlawful depends on the facts. Consult legal aid or a lawyer before choosing negotiation or arbitration.
Signing a personal-reasons voluntary resignation can forfeit severance and unemployment benefits. Ordinary worker-initiated departure is generally outside compensated termination, except statutory employer faults such as unpaid wages or social-insurance failures. Take time to review rather than signing that day.
Once devices and accounts are handed back, employment records may be inaccessible. Even where evidentiary duties favor the employee, your own proof of wages and overtime matters. Save your employment evidence, not company source code or client lists.
Complete Chinese unemployment procedures promptly and read the non-compete. The cited regulation calculates benefits from unemployment registration, so delay can cost payment time. Involuntary job loss is required, another reason to avoid falsely signing personal voluntary resignation.
Chinese employers must truthfully record hazards, consequences, protection and benefits in the contract. If they fail, you can refuse hazardous work without lawful dismissal for that refusal. They arrange and pay for pre-placement, periodic and exit occupational-health examinations. The statute prohibits termination before a required exit examination.
Pneumoconiosis, noise-induced deafness and chemical eye burns are recognized Chinese occupational diseases. Lung damage and hearing loss can be irreversible. You have rights to hazard information, suitable controls and protective equipment, and to refuse unlawful orders or work without protection. Retaliatory reductions in pay or dismissal for exercising those rights are invalid.
Workplace injury and qualifying commuting traffic injuries where you are not primarily responsible can count. Recognition is the gateway to medical, paid-recovery and disability benefits. Employers should apply within 30 days; if they do not, the worker, close relatives or union can apply within one year.
Heading to the workplace after becoming ill does not reliably create entitlement. The deemed-work-injury provision concerns onset during working hours and at the post; illness before arrival does not meet that combination. The cited 48-hour death rule is also restrictive. Delaying emergency care sacrifices survival for uncertain compensation.
If a Chinese employer failed to insure you, it must pay the same statutory benefits itself. Non-enrollment adds employer penalties, including arrears, daily 0.05% late charges and, after continued nonpayment, 1–3 times the arrears. “We did not insure you, so we cannot compensate you” is not a defense.
After stabilization, China's work-capacity assessment assigns the grade used for benefits. Lump-sum disability benefits equal 18 months' own wages for grade 5, 16 for grade 6, 13 for grade 7, 11 for grade 8, 9 for grade 9 and 7 for grade 10. Do not sign a final settlement before the result.
Do not negotiate only one payment. China's funeral allowance equals 6 months of the insurance locality's prior-year average monthly employee wage. Eligible dependants receive monthly percentages of the deceased's wages: 40% for the spouse and 30% for each other relative. The lump-sum occupational-death benefit is 20 times the previous year's national urban per-capita disposable income, uniform nationwide.
Bullied workers had about 60% higher later cardiovascular risk in one study, increasing with exposure. Another found roughly double the later odds of suicidal thoughts. Persistent humiliation is not necessarily a minor inconvenience to endure.