In Chinese labor law, an employee is an individual of legal age fit to work whose income and living derives from doing work under the direction of an employer lawfully pursuant to a contract. Chinese terminology for employees maps poorly onto English, as the law strictly classifies workers between full-time employed workers (laodongzhe) and non-full-time workers (laowu). The work of part-time staff and independent contractors such as consultants, is classified for labor law purposes as non-full-time workers (laowu). There are a number of key legal differences between each of these. Only a lawfully registered business can hire an employee, but individuals can hire part time help.

Two entirely different statutes govern each time of relationship: employees are governed by the Employment Contracts Act, which provides a very specific model of employment relations, whereas part-time and independent contractor workers under the laowu classification, are governed under ordinary contract law principles contained in the Civil Code, and therefore have greater freedom of contract.

Only employees are statutorily entitled to receive employer social security contributions and be protected from termination. The Employment Contract must be in writing, and are inflexible as to the mandatory provisions.

Terminology
In Chinglish, an “employee” is called a “laborer,” which can cover the work of white-collar workers including C-level executives and not just manual laborers. That translation is largely used because 19th-century era bilingual dictionary entries have not yet been updated.