Rural workers totalled 269 mln in 2013, up 2.4%

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, says rural workers totalled 269 million in 2013, up 2.4 percent from the previous year.

Vice Minister Yang Zhiming, briefed the media on the overall situation. He said some 166 million rural workers went to urban areas last year, raising the number of migrant workers by nearly 3 million. The average monthly income of all rural workers rose to two-thousand six hundred and nine yuan in 2013, about 14 percent up from the previous year. Judicial authorities across the country handled nearly 300,000 salary disputes involving rural workers. Some one-and-a-half million workers were able to collect 10 billion yuan in back pay.