The labor authority is working toward legally ensuring migrant workers are paid on a monthly basis.

Migrant workers are often paid according to a project's progress or even annually, but delays in paying wages have been too frequent over the past year, Qiu Xiaoping, vice-minister of human resources and social security, told China Daily.

Declining export demand and cash flow problems have hit many sectors that employ migrant workers, but the worst-hit sector was construction, Qiu said.

More than 300 cases of delayed wages were reported in 2012, Zou Zhen, director of the social security department under the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, said at a news conference on Dec 20.

Qui said that workers must get their full pay on a monthly basis.

"The Labor Law stipulates that employers, regardless of what industries, should pay workers their wages on a monthly basis," he said.

Laborers are not hired directly by the construction company but through a third party that hires them out to sites. This creates another tier that often adds to the payment of wages being delayed.

A report by Beijing Normal University showed that only 33 percent of construction workers in the capital have signed labor contracts.

It is common practice in the construction sector for payment to be deferred until a certain phase of a project is completed.

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