Trapped in Flexibility: How Does Precarious Work Affect Gender Wage Gap in China?
研究发现中国劳动力市场中，不稳定的工作（如临时工、非正规就业）会扩大性别工资差距，女性承担了更多社会再生产成本，导致收入更低。
Rapid expansion of precarious employment carries risks of exacerbating the gender wage gap in China. This article finds an inverse relationship between flexibility and security in the labor market, disproportionately affecting women workers. Drawing from the Marxist-feminist theory of social reproduction, the study conceptualizes China’s social reproduction regime as developmentalist, characterized by ongoing tension between economic development and social reproduction. Promoting precarious work, which reflects the operational logic of the developmentalist social reproduction regime, is essentially transferring social reproduction cost from capital to labor. This cost is predominantly shouldered by precarious workers, particularly women, resulting in a widened gender wage gap. Using the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey, the study finds empirical support for the theorization that the gender wage gap among precarious workers is significantly larger than among non-precarious workers. The article proposes policies addressing the gap by shifting the cost of social reproduction from labor back to capital.HIGHLIGHTS Gender wage gap is wider among precarious workers in China.Marxist-feminist theories help us to better understand GWG in precarious work.Women in precarious work face income loss risks and heavier domestic responsibilities.Developmentalist social reproduction regime seeks to balance growth and reproduction.The cost of social reproduction should be shifted back to capital.