Gaps between de jure entitlement and de facto benefits: Drift and the role of employers in China's maternity benefit system

Female workers in China have a de jure right to maternity benefits, as enshrined in policy and legal documents since the 1950s. This article examines why this entitlement is not always de facto guaranteed as stipulated in the legislation. We use the conceptual framework of gradual institutional change by drift to analyze how a changing context, that of marketization, undermined the effectiveness of an institution, namely the individual right to maternity benefits. We trace the historical evolution of maternity benefits and examine their outcomes in terms of coverage and benefit levels. We find that the transition from a command to a market economy led to employer noncompliance in providing benefits. Although maternity insurance was introduced in 1994 to alleviate drift, persistent employer non-compliance, and weak legal enforcement, also help explain why coverage remained uneven well into the 2010s and why this was accompanied by a decline in maternity benefit levels at the same time. In fact, linking female workers' maternity entitlements to a noncontributory insurance scheme that makes employers both contributors and distributors of maternity benefits has reinforced the employers' role and contributed to the gaps between de jure entitlement and de facto benefits. By combining historical research and interviews with quantitative data from statistical yearbooks and the China Labor Dynamics Survey, we add new insights to research on maternity benefits in China by tackling the relationship between drift and the implementation of legislation.