We have them to thank for our running water and electricity, the food we eat and the houses we live in.

Every time you go to a supermarket, restaurant or department store you're relying on the hard work of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who migrate from farms and villages across China to the nation's great cities.

They come to work long hours for wages which would make the average China Daily reader balk, in the hope of sending money home to their impoverished families.

In many ways this vast migration of labor is what drives the nation's rocketing economy it is certainly what has built the tall buildings shooting up in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

And yet the migrants remain exploited and underappreciated.

Last year 41,904 migrant workers in Beijing alone weren't paid on time according to the city's Labor and Security Bureau and that was a reduction of 63 percent on the number of late payments the previous year.

The late payment of wages which has sparked violent protests and seen workers threaten to throw themselves off the buildings they are working on illustrates the lack of respect employers often afford migrants.

Meanwhile warnings are increasing that their children, left home alone or with elderly relatives, perform poorly at school and are prone to juvenile delinquency.

The situation is gradually changing. There are more and more schools for migrants' children in the cities they settle in. And Premier Wen Jiabao spent the New Year calling on migrant workers, among others, in Shenyang.

But segregated schools and token visits are far from enough. If China wants to grow into a stable and prosperous society, more has to be done to prevent poor migrant workers being left behind.

Meeting this week for the National People's Congress (NPC), legislators need to take urgent action to help migrants keep up with the society they are driving forward.

Guaranteeing minimum wages and passing tough new legislation to make sure they get paid on time would be a step in the right direction.

(China Daily March 11, 2007)