Sun Yifang is a 65-year-old man from Zhoukou, Henan province. According to a statistic by NBS released in April 2017, He is one of 0.28 Billion migrant workers in China.
Sun has no social insurance and some other welfare. As a rural resident, the government will give the elderly people who are over 65 like him 65 RMB per month as a pension. Although it means a little thing comparing current consumption level in China, it is, however, an extra income for the elderly people.
Sun is lucky because he gets an easier job than most elderly migrant workers. He does a gardening job at a university in Beijing. Elderly people are usually not easy to be employed. Although sun will mostly work for a whole week of 7 days without a day off, he doesn't need to worry about who will be his employer the next day.
Sun can get a monthly salary of 3,000 RMB if he works for 30 days a month, and he can get about 2,500 RMB if he can have a day off each week. It is also a tough work being a gardener, especially in cold winter. He has to water over 400 square meters trees and plants every 2 other days, and some other gardening work. But Sun thinks this is a rather more light work for him than making livings in his hometown. He lives in the flat area in Henan province, his family members only have a few farmlands.
"We can produce about 2,250 kilograms corns and wheat by our family a year. If we sell them all out, we can earn about 5,000 RMB. That is our earnings for one year on the farmlands. But if we come to the cities, as for me, I can keep about 10,000 RMB for saving in a year except for some daily expenditures." Sun Said.
Many migrant workers, like Sun Yifang, come to big cities to make a living. They can't rely on their farmlands, and they have no social insurance. This is the only choice for them. More and more elderly migrant workers are getting old. According to NBS's statistic, almost 20% of migrant workers are beyond the age of 50. How many years can they work in cities for the living?
