China's Delivery Riders Face a Pension Gap That Subsidies Alone Cannot Close

A 443.3 yuan payment still competes with daily necessities

In Quanzhou, a delivery rider eligible for Meituan's pension subsidy can pay 443.3 yuan a month toward a state pension, with the platform contributing another 443.3 yuan. Yet at the Puxi Wanda delivery station, which has about 150 riders, fewer than 20 initially enrolled. A subsequent account of the station put participation below 10, although it did not specify the year of that later count. Meituan has not released national enrollment figures.

The small response exposes the distance between making insurance available and making it affordable. Meituan launched pension subsidy pilots in Quanzhou, Fujian province, and Nantong, Jiangsu province, on April 3, 2025, then expanded the program nationwide in November. The company described the expansion as the industry's first social security subsidy scheme open to all delivery workers. Access, however, does not mean every rider qualifies for every benefit or chooses to contribute.

Hai Liang, a 42 year old rider in Quanzhou, measures pension costs against the deliveries needed to earn the money. His reference to nearly 900 yuan is close to the full local contribution of 886.6 yuan, before Meituan's subsidy.

Pay nearly 900 yuan ($135) a month into a pension? That's four days of deliveries for me. Can I bring myself to part with that?

Hai is his family's sole breadwinner and has moved between platforms to collect recruitment incentives. Despite wanting a pension, he has not met Meituan's eligibility requirements. His predicament captures two barriers at once: the contribution competes with immediate spending, while frequent job changes can delay access to the subsidy intended to reduce it.

What the pension payment actually buys

China's social insurance system includes pensions, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, occupational injury insurance and maternity insurance. Workers in conventional employment generally share contributions with an employer. Many delivery riders instead work through agencies or other businesses under service arrangements, rather than labor contracts, leaving them outside that familiar route to employer contributions.

The National Development and Reform Commission's September 2022 flexible employment guidance, citing the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, explains an alternative. Eligible people working independently or without employer pension coverage can voluntarily join urban employee basic pension insurance. They normally pay the entire contribution themselves, at 20 percent of a contribution base selected within provincial limits.

A contribution base is the amount used to calculate the premium, not necessarily a worker's actual earnings. At Quanzhou's pilot base of 4,433 yuan a month, 20 percent produces a contribution of 886.6 yuan. Meituan's equal split reduces the rider's payment to 443.3 yuan, or 10 percent of that base.

The government guidance says participants receive the same pension benefits as enterprise employees, provided they reach the applicable retirement age and satisfy the minimum contribution period. Payments can be made monthly, quarterly, every six months or annually. That flexibility changes payment timing, but does not remove the expense.

Why halving the premium has not settled the decision

For riders earning around the pilot's qualifying threshold, the subsidized payment still takes a substantial share of income. At 4,433 yuan in monthly earnings, 443.3 yuan is 10 percent. Against the 7,469 yuan average monthly delivery income reported by a blue collar employment survey for 2024, it is about 5.9 percent. That national average is not a measure of what every Quanzhou rider earns.

Both comparisons help explain findings from a 2024 survey of more than 30,000 riders conducted by a team led by Zhang Dandan, a professor at Peking University's National School of Development. More than half wanted a pension, but willingness to pay was much lower. About 38.9 percent would contribute less than 5 percent of monthly income.

Published accounts give slightly different precision for other results: one describes fewer than 10 percent accepting the prevailing contribution share and 23 percent rejecting mandatory contributions; another gives 10 percent and 23.5 percent respectively. They point to the same broad tension between wanting retirement protection and accepting the current cost.

Daily spending makes that tension concrete. Luo Kai, the 35 year old owner of a restaurant near the Puxi Wanda station, allows riders to eat first and pay later. Station manager Wu Xiaohua says he advances about 20,000 yuan a month to workers short of cash. For some riders, setting money aside for decades competes with paying for today's meals.

Wang Xu, a 25 year old rider who buys the cheapest set meal twice a day, describes that choice directly.

We deliver food to cover the basics," says Wang. "Does pension insurance count as a basic?

Short jobs meet a qualification window

The Quanzhou pilot required riders to earn at least 4,433 yuan in three of the preceding six months. Its stated age rules covered men aged 16 to 60, with limits of 50 or 55 for women depending on their work category. These were the reported pilot conditions, rather than a full description of eligibility after nationwide expansion.

The two city pilots covered approximately 22,000 eligible riders. That figure describes potential eligibility, not confirmed enrollment. Meituan also described the program as having no minimum working hours, order volumes or delivery type restrictions. Those assurances should not be read as removing the earnings history requirement described for the pilot.

That distinction matters because Zhang's research found that couriers stayed in delivery work for only about six months on average. Among more than 30 riders interviewed in Quanzhou's busy shopping district, roughly half had been in the industry for about three months. Many knew little about the subsidy.

Workers also move into other industries when better wages become available. In Quanzhou, shoe factories attract riders during peak production periods. Wu says nearly 80 workers left his station ahead of a Chinese New Year holiday in February, including some early pension participants. The account does not identify the year of that departure wave, so it cannot establish a dated national retention trend.

Insurance follows the worker, not the delivery job

Some reluctance stems from uncertainty rather than outright rejection. Riders have asked whether contributions are tied to the city where they deliver, whether moving home would create problems, and whether leaving delivery work would make previous payments worthless.

The Hunan Department of Human Resources and Social Security's February 26, 2025 pension enrollment guidance, carrying information from the national ministry, addresses those concerns. It says flexible workers can generally enroll in employee pension insurance in their hometown or place of employment. Household registration restrictions have been removed in most places, with exceptions in a small number of very large cities.

Before pension benefits begin, workers moving within a province do not need to transfer their pension relationship. Those moving across provincial boundaries can apply for a transfer under national rules. Leaving a delivery platform therefore does not, by itself, erase pension savings. Continued access to a platform subsidy is a separate issue from retaining the pension account.

The guidance also describes another route: urban and rural resident basic pension insurance, paid annually at locally defined levels in the worker's place of household registration. It explains procedures for connecting the two pension systems and transferring personal account balances when the relevant conditions are met. These options are not a promise of identical payouts from each system.

Registration can be completed through national online services or local social insurance offices and neighborhood service centers. Quanzhou's human resources bureau has also established dedicated counters for Meituan riders. Daily inquiries at local centers suggest interest in retirement planning, even when that interest does not become enrollment.

Trust and immediate benefits change the calculation

Some riders initially understood Meituan's proposal to mean the company would pay the whole pension premium. After discussions, the arrangement became an equal split. Others feared salary deductions were another way for the platform to retain their earnings.

Jin Luhui, a courier team leader who joined the subsidized program in April 2025, explains the misunderstanding.

"They don't understand that the contributions go directly into the state social security system. They worry that the platform is trying to take a bigger share of their earnings," says Jin.

Jin had an immediate reason to enroll. His daughter was due to start elementary school in September, and Quanzhou's enrollment rules required parents to have paid at least six months of social insurance. For his family, contributing served a present need as well as a future one.

Other riders see more value in keeping cash available. Li Min, 27, had been delivering for barely a week and was saving for an electric bike, a smartphone and orthodontic treatment costing 16,000 yuan. Jin Cailin, a Shanghai rider in his 30s, wanted to save toward opening a restaurant and said he would consider pension payments after turning 45.

Those choices do not establish that business investment or consumer purchases will provide better retirement security. They show why a distant benefit can lose out to a specific expense today. Nankai University research puts the average delivery rider's age at 33, leaving retirement many years away for much of the workforce.

Platforms are choosing different protection models

Meituan's pension subsidy is one approach to a wider coverage problem. JD chose a different model for its takeout business, announcing full social insurance and a housing provident fund for riders with formal employment contracts, starting March 1, 2025. Early descriptions said coverage would be introduced gradually. JD later said it would absorb the social insurance premium costs so workers' take home income would not fall.

The main developments span several years:

• In 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other government bodies issued guidance calling for platforms to pay social insurance for delivery employees.
• In July 2022, an occupational injury insurance pilot began across seven cities and provinces, involving seven platforms.
• Ele.me says it began providing social insurance in selected cities in February 2023 and has been expanding subsidies for stable riders working part time.
• JD's takeout rider benefits were scheduled to begin on March 1, 2025. Meituan announced plans for social insurance for full time and stable riders during the second quarter.
• Meituan launched its Quanzhou and Nantong pension pilots on April 3, 2025, and expanded pension subsidies nationwide in November.

JD reported about 10,000 full time takeout riders in March and announced on April 15 that it planned to hire at least 50,000 during that quarter. That recruitment target is not evidence that all those hires occurred. Its arrangements for riders working part time focused on accident and health insurance.

Meituan has also offered comprehensive social insurance to full time riders in Zhengzhou and Wuxi, but has struggled to fill those positions. More formal employment can provide broader protection while being less attractive to people who value moving between platforms and jobs.

Injury coverage is broader than pension participation

By the end of September 2025, Meituan said it had paid more than 2 billion yuan in occupational injury insurance premiums, covering 13 million riders. That is a different measure from pension enrollment: protection against a work injury does not establish that a rider is building a retirement pension.

Zhu Tian, a researcher involved in Meituan's rider protection initiatives, says company surveys found that 70 percent of riders had rural household registration and that the vast majority already had basic medical insurance in their hometowns. With occupational injury coverage addressing traffic accidents and some workers buying commercial accident insurance, he identifies pensions as a prominent remaining gap.

The size of the workforce also varies according to the measure used. One account cites more than 12 million registered delivery workers across platforms. A blue collar employment survey estimates around 15 million delivery workers in 2024, up 15.38 percent from the previous year. Neither figure can be treated as interchangeable with Meituan's insurance coverage count or its reported active workforce.

Meituan describes a broader welfare network that includes serious illness support, children's education funds, meals, medical examinations and vocational training. In November 2025 it said parent and child leave and autumn harvest leave were being developed. No implementation dates were given for those planned benefits, and projected reach of several million people was not a pension enrollment total.

What remains unresolved

Expanding protection brings questions about who pays and whether support matches irregular earnings. Zhang Chenggang, director of a research center on new forms of employment, estimated that mandatory social insurance could increase platform labor costs by around 40 percent. He also estimated that covering Meituan's more than 820,000 active riders could add nearly 10 billion yuan, equivalent to 70 to 80 percent of the company's profit. These are estimates for broader coverage, not measured costs of the voluntary pension subsidy.

Government support already exists for some workers. The 2022 national guidance says eligible people facing employment difficulties and eligible unemployed college graduates within two years of leaving school can receive social insurance subsidies, generally capped at two thirds of actual contributions. It sets different duration limits for each group. It does not establish that every delivery rider qualifies or that those subsidies can automatically be combined with Meituan's payments.

Zhang Dandan has called for insurance arrangements that reflect income levels and job types. Zhang Yi, former head of the National Academy of Chinese Modernization under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has proposed doubling basic pensions for urban and rural residents over the next decade. That is a policy proposal, not an adopted increase. Zhao Qing, an associate professor at Wuhan University, argues that a system requiring sustained contributions needs more flexibility for gig workers.

For Meituan, the unresolved issue is participation, not simply geographic reach. National enrollment data, detailed retention results and a clear measure of how many riders maintain payments are still absent. Zhu says the hoped for workforce benefit has been limited.

"We had hoped pension subsidies would help us retain more riders long term, but they haven't been very effective," says Zhu.

Hai's experience shows why. Lowering the premium helps only after he qualifies, and even then he must balance it against the needs of two children and a household supported by his deliveries. Pension access has expanded. The ability to use it consistently remains a separate challenge.

Key Points

• Meituan expanded its pension subsidy nationwide in November 2025 after April pilots in Quanzhou and Nantong.
• At Quanzhou's pilot contribution base, riders pay 443.3 yuan monthly and Meituan matches that amount.
• Low local enrollment reflects cash shortages, frequent job changes, eligibility conditions and uncertainty about the system.
• Government guidance allows pension continuity across job changes and transfers between provinces under national rules.
• JD, Meituan and Ele.me use different combinations of formal employment benefits, subsidies and accident protection.
• Meituan has not published national pension enrollment figures, so nationwide availability cannot yet be equated with widespread participation.