China's top court is set to ban an informal working arrangement by which employers can skip mandatory social security payments.

Why It Matters

Officials have pledged to strengthen China's weak social safety net as part of broader efforts to rebuild confidence amid a years-long property-sector crisis, in a nation where an estimated 70 percent of household wealth is tied up in real estate.

If widely enforced, the change will rattle China's vast informal economy, and in the short term likely cost many low-income employees work hours or their jobs, and eat into the already thin margins of farmers.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

What To Know

In an August 1 judicial interpretation, China's Supreme People's Court announced that employment contra

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