Employers' Preference and Employees' Welfare Accessibility: Based on a Survey Data of Migrant Population in 2020

In the existing literature of workers' welfare accessibility, Employers are usually portrayed as "fee evaders" who avoid financial responsibilities to decrease labor cost. However, from employers-centered perspective, enterprises could be supporters of workers' welfare programs. Taking the housing provident fund system as an example, this paper finds, based on an analysis of data from a 2020 mobility survey, that whether workers participate in housing provident funds is significantly influenced by the size, nature of ownership, and skill system of the enterprise. Enterprises contribute to provident funds for mobile workers not only for compliance needs, but also to lock in core employees and skilled professionals. The final conclusion challenges the traditional government-centered perspective and hypothesis of enterprise evaders, and further provides policy implication in improving workers' welfare accessibility. Workers' welfare provision should stress the combination of enterprise responsibility and governmental accountability, that the government should establish appropriate tax and regulatory frameworks to guide the enterprise to fulfill employers' responsibility, advocate po-licy innovation, as well as support enterprises to establish employees' welfare programs to match its skill and business status.