On May 1, 2025, International Labor Day, the Volunteer Lawyers’ Network Against Employment Discrimination published the Report on the Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Employment Laws (Women’s Section). The report finds that recruitment and workplace discrimination against women remain widespread in China. Women continue to face significant challenges in job applications, workplace protections during pregnancy and childbirth, equal pay for equal work, and access to anti-discrimination remedies.
The report highlights that China’s decades-long “one-child policy” ended, and the “three-child policy” was implemented in 2021, granting women of childbearing age the right to have three children. However, many employers, concerned that female employees may take three maternity leaves, are increasingly reluctant to hire women of childbearing age.
Lu Miaoqing, a female lawyer from Guangdong who represented the high-profile “Female Chef Employment Discrimination Case,” stated: “In recent years, the government has begun implementing supportive measures to foster a ‘fertility-friendly’ work environment. This necessarily requires protecting women’s workplace rights, particularly regarding pregnancy and maternity leave. However, most gender-related legislation remains at the advisory level, making it difficult to enforce effectively.”
Regarding the prevention of workplace sexual harassment, the report finds that in recently collected cases, most employers proactively dismissed perpetrators of sexual harassment, indicating progress in addressing workplace harassment.
Liu Wei, a female lawyer who previously practiced in Beijing and now resides in New York, stated: “Since January 2018, the Me Too anti-sexual harassment movement has gained significant momentum in China. Sexual harassment allegations raised by women across various sectors have reverberated through education, media, philanthropy, academia, politics, and religious communities. High-profile cases, such as Xianzi’s lawsuit against CCTV host Zhu Jun, have greatly advanced efforts to combat sexual harassment in China.”
The Volunteer Lawyers’ Network Against Employment Discrimination, established on April 29, 2016, by 32 lawyers from 14 provinces, has provided legal assistance for multiple cases involving health-related discrimination and gender discrimination over the past nine years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group publicly addressed a letter to National People’s Congress representatives, advocating for the equal employment rights of COVID-19 survivors. The recently released Report on the Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Employment Laws (Women’s Section) focuses on women’s equal employment rights. Subsequent reports in this series will cover topics such as “Health Conditions” and “Disabilities.”
Anti-Discrimination Litigation: Heavy Burden of Proof on Workers
The Report on the Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Employment Laws (Women’s Section) finds that the court’s case classification system has increased the burden of proof on workers, including both employees and job seekers, a situation that urgently needs reform. In December 2018, the Supreme People’s Court issued the Notice on Adding Civil Case Classifications, introducing the case category of “Equal Employment Rights Disputes.” The report analyzes two Beijing-based court rulings involving female workers who were allegedly reassigned or received salary reductions due to pregnancy or childbirth. After filing lawsuits under “Equal Employment Rights Disputes,” the courts required the plaintiffs to prove that their employers’ actions were discriminatory based on their pregnancy or childbirth status. Both plaintiffs lost their cases due to their inability to meet the burden of proof.
While China’s judicial system established a specific case category for employment discrimination, reflecting an emphasis on protecting workers’ equal employment rights, in practice, this has shifted the burden of proof onto workers. As early as 20 years ago, the Supreme People’s Court recognized the difficulty workers face in proving the reasons behind employer actions such as dismissal or salary reduction. Consequently, it stipulated that “in labor dispute cases, where disputes arise from employer decisions such as expulsion, termination, dismissal, contract termination, salary reduction, or calculation of a worker’s years of service, the employer bears the burden of proof.” However, the newly introduced “Equal Employment Rights Disputes” category is not classified as a “labor dispute” but as a subcategory of “General Personality Rights Disputes” under personality rights disputes. The allocation of the burden of proof follows rules analogous to general tort disputes, requiring the plaintiff to provide preliminary evidence for their claims and refute any counterevidence presented by the defendant. As a result, the burden of proof on workers in these cases is significantly heavier than in labor dispute cases.
Workplace Sexual Harassment: Employers Proactively Dismiss Perpetrators
The report examines judgments and rulings from 33 cases related to workplace sexual harassment. It finds that 29 cases involved verbal or behavioral harassment between colleagues within the same workplace, one case occurred between workers in external business interactions, and three cases involved livestreamer-agency or partnership contexts. In 20 cases, employers proactively dismissed employees accused of sexual harassment. Of these, 13 dismissals were deemed lawful by courts, requiring no economic compensation for contract termination. Seven dismissals were ruled unlawful, either because the behavior was not deemed sexual harassment or because the burden of proof was not met, requiring employers to pay compensation for unlawful contract termination. In seven cases, employers who dismissed accused employees also failed to pay owed wages, work-related injury compensation, performance-based pay, or year-end bonuses. Three accusers of sexual harassment sought compensation for emotional distress caused by the harassment; two cases were upheld by courts, with awards of 5,000 CNY and 2,000 CNY, respectively, for emotional distress.
Previous studies on workplace sexual harassment have noted that Article 90, Paragraph 3 of the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Evidence in Civil Proceedings (revised in 2019) stipulates that “testimony from a witness with a conflict of interest with one party or its agent” cannot solely serve as the basis for determining case facts. However, the report finds that the Guangzhou Intermediate Court exercised discretionary judgment, affirming sexual harassment based on the testimony of two female workers who were victims.
The report suggests that the proactive dismissal of employees accused of sexual harassment by most employers may be attributed to the Supreme People’s Court’s Guiding Case No. 181, issued in 2022. This case clarified that employers’ managerial staff must take reasonable measures to address complaints of sexual harassment from employees. Failure to do so may justify the employer’s right to terminate the labor contract with the managerial staff.
Civil Society’s Advocacy Efforts: Ongoing Suppression
Since 2014, the government has been escalating its crackdown on rights advocacy organizations, the legal community, and academia, leading to a sustained decline in actions advocating for gender equality. The government currently exhibits extremely low tolerance for advocacy efforts by civil society organizations, refusing to recognize reports or legal aid initiatives addressing workplace gender discrimination.
In February 2023, the feminist organization “Employment Gender Discrimination Monitoring Team” released the 2023 National Civil Service Examination Gender Discrimination Research Report. The report found that the 2023 national civil service examination offered 17,655 positions, of which 10,993 positions (62.72%) had no gender preference, while 6,662 positions (37.73%) exhibited gender preferences. Among the positions with gender preferences, 3,787 (21.45%) favored male candidates, and 2,875 (16.28%) favored female candidates. Positions favoring males outnumbered those favoring females by 912, with a 5.17% higher proportion. The data in the report reveals that, despite the Chinese government’s written commitments and legal support for workplace gender equality, persistent gender bias remains in government civil service recruitment practices.
Upon its release on a WeChat public account, the report was promptly removed. On January 20, 2025, the WeChat public account of the Employment Gender Discrimination Monitoring Team, “Jiancha Group” (????), was deleted and can no longer be updated. The government’s tight control over official data, academia, and media has suppressed public access to information about the extent of gender bias in government and broader societal contexts.
Media and Commercial Recruitment Platforms: Supporting Equal Employment Rights
The report highlights coverage by the influential mainland Chinese media outlet China Youth Daily in an article titled “How to Break Invisible Workplace Discrimination.” The article featured the real-life stories of four women facing employment discrimination, including: a young female job seeker asked about her marriage and childbirth plans during an interview; an intern exposing a major company’s HR department for prioritizing male candidates while scrutinizing female candidates’ marriage and childbirth plans during interviews; a magazine editorial director reassigned from core business operations to an administrative office role with a reduced salary after giving birth to her second child; and a female director with superior academic credentials and alma mater compared to her male counterpart, yet earning less than male colleagues in equivalent roles.
Additionally, the 2024 Women’s Workplace Status Survey Report published by Zhaopin (a leading Chinese online recruitment platform) revealed that 54% of female respondents had experienced gender-based employment discrimination, compared to only 6.6% of male respondents. Furthermore, 48.8% of female respondents reported being directly asked gender-related personal questions (such as marital status or childbirth plans) during interviews. Women’s salaries were, on average, 10% lower than men’s for equivalent roles, with the gap being even more pronounced in mid- and senior-level management positions. Additionally, 33.1% of female respondents faced barriers to promotions or salary increases due to gender, compared to 9.2% of male respondents who experienced gender-based obstacles to advancement. Moreover, 47.6% of female respondents reported being harassed by male colleagues or clients during work-related social gatherings, such as drinking events. These practices undoubtedly restrict women’s career choices and opportunities for professional growth.
Recommendations: Promote Equal Pay for Equal Work and Initiate Public Interest Litigation
The report argues that salary confidentiality agreements enable companies to obscure “unequal pay for equal work” practices, allowing them to avoid justifying salary disparities among employees in the same role. This disproportionately disadvantages female workers, fostering isolated and guarded relationships among employees rather than transparent, competitive, and healthy workplace dynamics. Given that individual female workers often have little room to refuse signing salary confidentiality agreements when demanded by employers, labor unions, as collective organizations formed through workers’ freedom of association, should take on this responsibility. The report recommends that civil society organizations actively advocate for and persuade local unions to include the statement “workers have the right to refuse to sign salary confidentiality agreements” in workers’ rights information booklets. Furthermore, companies should be required to distribute these booklets to new hires.
Currently, public interest litigation cases addressing employment discrimination, initiated through clues reported on the “Yixin Weigong” (????) prosecutorial cloud platform, almost only focus on gender discrimination in recruitment advertisements. The report suggests that female workers and public interest organizations report instances of unequal pay for equal work, as well as gender-based discrimination—such as salary reductions, reassignments, or isolation forcing resignation—experienced by female employees during pregnancy or childbirth, whether ongoing or past, to the “Yixin Weigong” platform. Female workers are encouraged to record their entire process of using the platform as evidence. If prosecutors fail to take action after a prolonged period, this evidence can be used to seek assistance from the All-China Women’s Federation or to file lawsuits in court.
Full Chinese report: ????????????????
AI-translated English report, provided as a courtesy for easier access: Report on the Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Employment Laws (Women’s Section)
