China Expands Work Injury Insurance for Gig Workers Nationwide

NEWSChina Expands Work Injury Insurance for Gig Workers NationwideCoverage will apply to food delivery workers, rideshare drivers, and other platform-based flexible workers, even without formal labor contracts, with companies paying all premiums.By Jiang XinyiJul 06, 2026#policy#laborChina has expanded its occupational injury insurance scheme for gig workers nationwide, the latest push to strengthen social protection for the country’s more than 200 million people in flexible employment.Under the scheme, which took effect July 1 and expands a previous pilot program to all 31 provincial-level regions, insurance coverage is triggered whenever a worker undertakes a platform order.

Platform companies pay all premiums — calculated per order and reported monthly.China’s traditional occupational injury insurance is built around formal employment relationships. But gig workers are often managed through layers of subcontractors, work across multiple platforms, and typically sign service agreements rather than labor contracts, making it difficult to identify a legally responsible employer when injuries occur.

The country’s rapidly expanding digital economy, accounting for 43.8% of its GDP, has fueled a surge in “flexible employment” — including gig work and freelancing — particularly among young Chinese facing a highly competitive job market or seeking a better work-life balance.China had more than 200 million flexible employees as of 2021, accounting for 27% of its employed population.

That number is projected to reach 320 million in 2026, according to a June report by the Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business.In recent years, China has moved to strengthen gig worker protections amid criticism of working conditions, including algorithm-driven deadlines that push delivery riders to take traffic risks, and low social insurance coverage.Piloted on July 1, 2022 across seven provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, the scheme initially covered seven platforms, including food delivery giants Meituan and Taobao Flash Sale.

Authorities expanded the program’s scope in July 2025 to 17 regions, adding ride-hailing platform Didi and the local operations of logistics giant SF Express, among others.“By breaking away from the traditional requirement of a formal employment relationship, the new scheme is better suited to addressing occupational injury risks under the current realities of new forms of employment,” Yu Feiyue, an associate professor at the School of Public Management of East China Normal University, told Sixth Tone.Yu added that the rules still need to be refined in practice — for example, how responsibility should be assigned when a delivery worker is injured while handling orders from multiple platforms simultaneously.

She also called for a unified system for accessing platform data so that workers “are not left to solely shoulder the difficulty of providing evidence after an accident.”The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that by June 2026, the occupational injury insurance scheme had covered nearly 30 million workers. It added that provinces should gradually add local ride-hailing, instant delivery, and intra-city freight companies to the insurance scheme by the end of this year, before exploring expansion into other industries by 2027.

Yu cautioned that local governments should avoid placing too much pressure on smaller platforms when setting insurance contribution rates, as they may be tempted to take on cheaper, riskier orders to compete with larger rivals.“Occupational injury protection should not be just a system for compensating workers after accidents happen,” Yu said. “More importantly, economic incentives should be used to push platforms to actively reduce risks and lower the likelihood of workplace injuries.

That is the more fundamental solution.”Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.(Header image: Delivery drivers ride through a flooded area in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 2024.

Yu Xiangquan/VCG)