Platform Non-standard Employment and Labor Market Regulations

From the perspective of non-standard employment, this study categorizes platform employment into platform standard employment and platform non-standard employment. Using national investigation data on platform employment of taxi drivers, this study finds that platform non-standard employment plays a pivotal role in promoting employment particularly for rural laborers and those with lower level of educational attainment, and it has livelihood significance in terms of raising income for laborers. However, two issues, i.e., working overtime and the lack of social insurance, are quite prominent. With regard to labor market regulations, there are few protections targeting platform non-standard employment in the contemporary system, imposing challenges to protection of labor rights in this employment category. While supporting and using platform employment and other new forms of employment to expand employment, it is crucial to strengthen employment management and labor market regulations, respond to new challenges generated by platform employment against current labor law and regulations, and respond to its negative impacts on labor management.