The two-tier labor market in urban China - Occupational segregation and wage differentials between urban residents and rural migrants in Shanghai

China had separate rural and urban labor markets for about 40 years until t he late 1980's when the restrictions on rural-urban migration were graduall y eased. By the end of the 1980's and in the early 1990's, the number of ru ral migrants working in the urban areas began to increase dramatically. How ever, rural migrants are treated differently from their urban counterparts in terms of occupational attainment and wages. This paper utilizes two comp arable survey data sets to analyze the degree to which the segregation betw een rural migrants and urban residents has occurred from the point of view of occupational segregation and wage differentials. A significant differenc e in occupational attainment and wages exists between rural migrants and ur ban residents. Most of the difference cannot be exp[lained by productivity- related differences between the two groups, implying that urban residents a re favorably treated while their migrant counterparts are discriminated aga inst. (C), 2001 Academic Press.