Recently, the "Mama Gang" that has appeared in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province and other places has attracted a lot of attention. As the name suggests, this is a special position for mothers with flexible working hours so that mothers can balance family and work. In other words, the key words of "mother's post" are flexible work and flexible management.
Women are not only the main body of fertility, but also an important human capital in society. Fertility issues and employment issues are intertwined and superimposed here in "she". With the implementation of the "universal three-child" policy, it is more urgent to reduce the cost of childbirth for families and relieve the pressure of female childcare. Under the background of the fading demographic dividend, it is right to pay attention to the "her" half of human capital. "Mama Post" allows mothers to return to the workplace and realize their personal social value, which is an attempt to reshape the employment environment and gender concept.
Then, what are the forms of flexible and flexible employment in "Mama Post"? What value and impact will it have? What are the implications of the current exploration? Let's focus together.
Mothers' "Want and Want"
In Ganggang Town, Zhongshan City, Huang Chunhua, a 29-year-old female worker, took down the audio hosts that appeared at a constant speed on the conveyor belt, and skillfully posted the operation instructions on the bottom of them.
These speakers will then travel across the ocean and appear on the shelves of supermarkets in European and American countries.
Although she has to repeat this kind of work hundreds of times a day, she can get a salary of about 4,000 yuan a month.
In addition, the working hours are very flexible, and you can ask for leave at any time. The vacancies in the leave will be filled by the all-round workers on site. You can choose whether to make up for the delayed working hours at other times of the month.
This saves Huang Chunhua from having to experience inner tears for picking up and dropping children to and from school and working time conflicts.
It is worth mentioning that the salary and benefits she should get are not affected at all.
In Zhongshan, this kind of work that allows mothers to work and earn money while taking care of their families and children, and flexibly arrange time, has a loud and warm name: Mama Gang.
It is understood that in the company where Huang Chunhua works, there are 236 "mother posts" like her, accounting for about 1/3 of the company's front-line employees.
In the whole city of Zhongshan, more than 160 enterprises have set up "mother posts", with more than 4,000 positions, and they are still growing.
At the same time, in Foshan, Guangdong, more than 250 enterprises have set up "Mama Posts", covering e-commerce, commerce, industrial production, housekeeping services and other fields, providing employment opportunities for more than 3,200 mothers.
Similar attempts have been made in some parts of the country.
A pharmaceutical factory in Xiajiang County, Ji'an, Jiangxi Province has opened a production line specifically for left-behind mothers; in Chongren County, Fuzhou, a clothing company has set up a sewing "community workshop" near the school to recruit mothers who stay with them for employment.
In recent years, my country's fertility policy has been intensively adjusted and gradually liberalized. Following the implementation of the "universal two-child" policy in 2016, in May last year, the "universal three-child" era was officially launched.
In this context, reducing the cost of childbirth and alleviating the pressure of parenting have become the focus of social attention.
Several studies on fertility intentions have found that because women spend more time caring for their families, their career development is limited and their incomes are reduced, causing them to hesitate to give birth to more children.
Shen Yang, an associate professor at the School of International and Public Affairs of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a researcher at the China Institute of Urban Governance, cited relevant research in my country and believed that in the context of educational competition, the spread of "intensive parenting" has exacerbated the role conflicts faced by women.
Yang Juhua, a professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology at the Minzu University of China, believes that reducing the cost of pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and education is an important goal of improving fertility support policies.
In addition to the production stage, the protection of the parenting stage also needs to be paid attention to, among which it is necessary to protect the rights and interests of the child-rearing subjects returning to the workplace and re-employment stage.
From this perspective, "Mama Post" resolves the role conflict of women and allows those who were forced to discontinue their careers due to childbirth to return to the labor market. Even if it is only a transition in a special period, it eases childbirth to a certain extent. Financial pressure on the family.
"This has a positive effect on relieving the fertility anxiety of women of childbearing age and releasing their reproductive potential," said Chen Mei, an associate professor at the Business School of Zhengzhou University.
How flexible employment is possible
Before Huang Chunhua and her co-workers found jobs in the "mother's post", they all encountered the predicament of finding a job.
"It's either that the job requires overtime or business trips, and we can't take care of our family, or the company thinks we can't devote ourselves to our work."
But on the other hand, under the impact of the epidemic, migrant workers accelerated their return to their "hometowns", and labor tensions intensified.
In the face of the continuous recovery of orders, many business owners can only hope to "single" and sigh.
In order to complete the order in a hurry, I often have to "borrow people" everywhere in a hurry.
On the one hand, women who want to work are constrained by their families and cannot "leave", and on the other hand, a large number of employers are nervous about labor.
"Is it possible that we can create a link between enterprises that need workers and women who need employment?" Yu Jiansi, chairman of the Zhongshan Women's Federation, recalled that based on this idea, the Zhongshan Women's Federation took the lead in advocating the implementation of "mother posts" to the society.
In May 2021, the exploration of "Mama Gang" was officially launched in Zhongshan.
The Zhongshan Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Department and women's federations at all levels have joined forces to visit employers to collect information on flexible work requirements of some companies, and plan to start from the supply and demand information link.
Hairdresser, oil sprayer, date maker, general worker, housekeeper, assembler... Soon, the first batch of employment information was released on the WeChat public account of Zhongshan Women's Federation. This flexible work and flexible management employment The mode is officially named "Mama Gang".
The name rang immediately.
After the first issue of "Mama Post" was released, "the number of hits reached 6,000 or 7,000 within two or three hours, which is very rare," said Zhang Hui, head of the publicity and education group of the Zhongshan Women's Federation.
In the comment area below, some netizens left a message: "I hope it can be popularized in all towns and districts", "It is recommended to add some editorial proofreading and other positions that require a certain degree of education."
"These feedbacks made us see the strong demand for women's postpartum employment, and also strengthened our determination to continue to be a 'mother' job." Yu Jiansi said.
In the process of promotion, some people think that "mother's post" is part-time, production or part-time.
In this regard, Xu Hong, chairman of the Guangdong Women's Federation, clarified that this is not the case. The "mother's post" can also be a position that normally works for 8 hours and occasionally requires flexible management, or a position that requires professional skills and can work from home.
According to reports, after more than a year of exploration, "Mama Gang" has developed at least 4 different models.
The first is the flexible "mother post" where Huang Chunhua is located. The company selects the purely manual operation or the process with lower technical threshold from the original process of the assembly line and splits it out. Female employees work 5-8 hours a day, and the commute time varies. Free to master.
The second type is called the flexible "mother class". According to the performance and production capacity of different machines, enterprises have different working hours, and female employees can choose them independently.
The third type is outgoing "mobile posts". For small parts that are easy to carry and hand-made, companies regularly deliver materials and receive goods regularly, which is very friendly to women who have high demand for family care.
In contrast, the last one is more trendy and is the "new job post for mothers" with flexible workplaces.
Such as creative design, copywriting planning, live broadcast anchors, e-commerce operations and other new flexible employment needs.
This type of work has high autonomy, flexible working methods, and certain requirements for professional skills, and is becoming the favorite choice of more and more white-collar mothers.
In Henglan Town, Zhongshan City, which is known as the "Hometown of Flowers and Trees in China", after a series of training courses on marketing and photography specially designed for mothers, more than 200 "Bao Ma" have turned into "Sister Tanhua". Large and small flower and wood stalls bring goods live.
As the "Sister Tanhua" of IP, the development is accelerating.
"Mama Post" increases female labor force participation rate
Regarding the decision to set up a "mother post", in interviews, some companies claimed that it was a "profit-giving" behavior out of consideration of social responsibility.
Yu Qing, the person in charge of Huang Chunhua's company, also thought so at the earliest.
When it comes to "benefiting", the default premise is that when hiring postpartum women, companies have to pay higher employment costs for this.
Take Huang Chunhua's assembly line as an example, because mothers may ask for leave at any time, in order not to affect production, the company has to add "all-round workers" positions so that they can be "posted" at any time.
For enterprises, the loss of working hours, the transformation of production processes and management, etc., are indeed additional costs that need to be borne.
Li Lei, a professor at the School of Economics of Nankai University, also pointed out that compared with men, due to the natural division of labor in fertility and child care, women are at a disadvantage in terms of work time investment and work continuity, which determines that companies may undertake additional labor when hiring women. cost.
But what Yu Qing did not expect was that although the working hours of the female workers in the "Mama Post" were flexible, their work performance was very strong.
According to their statistics, the turnover rate of "mother posts" is low, stable at around 5%, while other employment modes are often 15%, and even more than 30% in some seasons.
And because of the strong sense of belonging and high loyalty, the work efficiency and product qualification rate of the "mother post" are also higher than those of ordinary workers.
Therefore, the company confidently handed over the production tasks of high-end products to the "Mama Post" employees.
Yu Qing's statistics and observations have been confirmed in Chen Mei and Li Lei's earlier research.
In a paper published last year, two scholars found that an increase in the employment share of women has a positive effect on the export scale of enterprises, and that in foreign-funded enterprises, skill-intensive enterprises, women-intensive industries, high-tech industries and women's low education level Regional influence is greater.
More importantly, Li Lei added that in the long run, the policy preference or care for female employees during childbirth will give enterprises the future benefits of comprehensive access to human capital investment such as employee training, and the benefits brought by an inclusive and diverse workforce. Productivity growth has a positive meaning, "and this helps companies reduce labor costs per unit of output in the long run".
"In the beginning, it was done with the mentality of 'giving profits' to the enterprise, but the enterprise eventually became the real beneficiary." Yu Qing said that after seeing the huge potential of "Mama Post", the company allocated more Job shares are used to recruit "mom posts."
Right now, the new "sweet trouble" is that the company's labor demand is still increasing, but "the mothers in need in the neighborhood have already taken up jobs."
In recent years, with the development of China's economy and society, the fertility rate has declined and the working-age population has continued to decrease. The demographic dividend has gradually faded and is irreversible.
Chen Mei believes that women of childbearing age are not only the main body of childbirth, but also an important human resource.
"It needs to be seen that women, who account for half of my country's population, are an important part of the labor force." She believes that with the gradual reduction of the demographic dividend, the establishment of flexible employment positions such as "mother posts" will help increase the female labor force participation rate and achieve the right balance. The utilization of the existing female labor force and skills is of great significance to promote economic growth.
It is also based on this that many scholars have emphasized that we should shift from the "demographic dividend" to the "gender dividend", and pointed out that increasing the female labor force participation rate and realizing the utilization of the existing female labor force and skills can bring new opportunities. rounds of economic growth and have a wide-ranging impact on the economy and society.
Both Chen Mei and Li Lei said that the exploration of the employment form of "mama post" is "full of warmth and wisdom" and "possible to form a 'win-win' situation for employees, families, enterprises and the country".
Shen Yang also pointed out that the promotion of "Mama Post" is conducive to fundamentally promoting the development of women.
share the cost of childbirth
In the company where Huang Chunhua works, "Mama Post" has equal pay and equal treatment to other positions.
This also means that, in addition to wages and salaries, the company also pays 732 yuan in social security and 95 yuan in provident funds for each female worker in the “mother post” every month, and purchases employer liability insurance in one lump sum on an annual basis.
However, a few months later, the company will save nearly 400 yuan per person per month in the payment of "mother's post" five insurances and one housing fund, which is close to half of the payment.
In early July, the Zhongshan Municipal Government issued "Several Measures on Vigorously Promoting the New Employment Model of "Mama Post", officially incorporating the "mama post" work into the city's implementation plan for implementing the State Council's package of policies and measures to stabilize the economy.
The support document clarifies a number of support policies for "mother posts" such as tax relief, training support, employment service management, etc. "The amount of 'gold' is very high," said Xu Hong, chairman of the Guangdong Women's Federation.
According to the policy, every time an enterprise successfully declares a labor contract to employ a "mother post", signs a labor contract with a worker for more than one year and pays social security for it as required, it will receive a monthly social security subsidy of 300 yuan and a post subsidy of 100 yuan.
If a qualified worker signs a labor service agreement with the employer instead of a labor contract, and pays social security as an individual, the aforementioned 300 yuan social security subsidy will be distributed to the mother herself.
In addition, whether it is labor contract employment or labor employment, enterprises that successfully apply for "mother posts" can enjoy a precision training subsidy of no more than 500 yuan each year; if the employees are those who have been lifted out of poverty or those who have been registered as unemployed for more than half a year, they can enjoy additional benefits. A variety of tax incentives of 7800 yuan.
It is understood that the special fund set up by the Zhongshan Municipal Government amounts to 5 million yuan.
In order to promote flexible employment forms such as "Mama Post", the Zhongshan Human Resources and Social Security Department has opened up online and offline information release and recruitment channels, carried out inspections and supervision in accordance with the law, and urged enterprises to implement labor laws and regulations.
The subsidy of real money and silver is considered to be a practical measure for the government to share the cost of childbirth with individuals and enterprises, so it has been well received.
Li Lei pointed out that this public policy will stimulate the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of enterprises to support women's reemployment.
Yang Hui, an associate researcher at the Women's Research Institute of the All-China Women's Federation, also believes that the relevant subsidies will benefit women in high-skilled, high-quality professional and technical positions and management positions in large and medium-sized enterprises, which will produce more positive social benefits.
With the intensive adjustment of birth policies, various regions have introduced supporting measures, such as extending maternity leave and increasing paternity leave.
Lu Jiehua, a professor at the Department of Sociology at Peking University, said in an interview with the media that enterprises, as the main body of economic development, may lack the initiative to hire female employees.
However, Huang Xueli, director of the Zhongshan Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, believes that flexible employment for postpartum women such as "mother posts" can be included in the support of provincial, municipal and central employment subsidies.
At present, the subsidy objects of the above-mentioned special funds are mainly people with employment difficulties and college graduates.
Because some of the workers in the "mother's post" belong to flexible employment, some people label them as low-skilled.
Chen Mei believes that there is no need to worry about this.
Although flexible employment may seem "informal", it does not mean low-skilled and low-quality employment.
In the future, with the expansion of the scale of flexible employment, the improvement of employment quality, and the strengthening of relevant policy guarantees, the related discrimination will be alleviated.
In this regard, Huang Xueli also pointed out that it is necessary to further strengthen vocational ability training for flexible employment groups to fundamentally improve their employability.
"We need to realize that supporting families, or more precisely, women balancing career development and childcare responsibilities, is more likely to rely on the government to vigorously develop the public childcare service system and further share the family's parenting and caring responsibilities." Chinese Social Sciences Yang Ge, an associate researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, said.
"The experience of increasing paternity leave and parental leave for men abroad and in some domestic provinces and cities is worth learning and encouraging." Yang Ge and Shen Yang both pointed out that this will help guide men to readjust the time allocation of work and family investment, and take on more childcare. responsibility.
In this scorching summer, Huang Chunhua and the children of her co-workers played in the exclusive activity room 100 meters away from her mother and accompanied her mother to work.
In other places, more uncles and aunts are actively running to find more possibilities for that "half the sky".
(Reporter Wang Dan of this newspaper)