Hundreds of millions of migrant workers in China are expected to get their wages more easily under a regulation aimed at more effectively punishing employers who refuse to pay them.

The regulation specifies measures that human resources and social security authorities should take in various cases in which enterprises or individuals deliberately avoid paying workers. Cases will be handed more smoothly to judicial authorities for criminal prosecution.

Employers who refuse to pay workers are already subject to criminal punishment under the amended Criminal Law adopted in 2011. A judicial interpretation released by the Supreme People's Court in 2013 clarifies the law's application to such crimes.