Ride-hailing drivers’ working conditions and social protection in China

This article aims to examine ride-hailing drivers’ working conditions and social protection in China. Through interviews with 25 ride-hailing drivers in Beijing, we found that their working conditions are precarious, stressful, surveilled, and their social protection exhibits features of inadequacy and fragmentation. They are excluded from social insurance for urban employees due to the lack of a formal employment relationship. Instead, they largely participate in the medical insurance for residents, but its insurance benefits are much lower than those for urban employees. Furthermore, citizens’ participation in residents’ medical insurance is determined by their hukou (i.e. household registration) residency. Internal migrant drivers are only entitled to be insured at their origin where their hukou is located. Despite working in the same occupation and living in the same city, internal migrant drivers and Beijing-native drivers have distinct social insurance benefits. Thus, we propose the binary classification of de jure/de facto residency, which contributes to a deeper understanding of social protection for non-standard forms of employment.