正文翻譯

‘It’s just not worth it’: why full-time work no longer pays in the UK
-Britain has a shrinking economy and a worker shortage – so why aren’t part-time workers increasing their hours?

“不值得”：為什么在英國全職工作不再劃算
——英國經(jīng)濟(jì)正在萎縮，工人短缺——那么為什么兼職工人不增加他們的工作時間呢？

(An Elizabeth Line train en route to Paddington from Slough. Commuting has been named one of the unaffordable elements of full-time work, in addition to childcare and other costs.)

（從斯勞開往帕丁頓的伊麗莎白線列車。除了育兒和其他費(fèi)用外，通勤被認(rèn)為是全職工作中負(fù)擔(dān)不起的因素之一。）
新聞：

Tougher benefit rules have boosted employment in the UK, but have also trapped workers in dead-end jobs and weakened incentives to move from part to full-time work, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

英國財政研究所表示，更嚴(yán)格的福利規(guī)定促進(jìn)了英國的就業(yè)，但也將工人困在沒有前途的工作中，削弱了他們從兼職轉(zhuǎn)向全職的動力。

As Britain is expected to be the only major industrialised country to see its economy shrink this year, amid rising interest rates and higher taxes, the government is frantically trying to find ways to boost economic growth.

由于利率上升、稅收增加，預(yù)計英國將是今年唯一一個經(jīng)濟(jì)出現(xiàn)萎縮的主要工業(yè)國家，政府正在瘋狂地尋找刺激經(jīng)濟(jì)增長的方法。

With the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, having launched an inquiry into why hundreds of thousands of people have left the workforce recently, and the Treasury keen to get more people into full-time work, the question of why more people aren’t increasing their hours amid a persistent shortage of workers has once more moved centre stage.

隨著財政大臣杰里米·亨特發(fā)起“為什么最近有數(shù)十萬人離開了勞動力市場”的調(diào)查，并且財政部渴望于讓更多的人找到全職工作，在勞動力持續(xù)短缺的情況下，為什么沒有更多的人增加工作時間的問題再次成為了焦點(diǎn)。

More than 8 million people – a quarter of the UK workforce – are in part-time work now, the latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

英國國家統(tǒng)計局的最新官方數(shù)據(jù)顯示，目前有超過800萬人（占英國勞動力的四分之一）在做兼職。

Influential Tory backbenchers are putting pressure on the chancellor to introduce a range of measures to help make childcare more affordable so parents can get back to work.

有影響力的保守黨后座議員正在向財政大臣施加壓力，要求他出臺一系列措施，使兒童保育費(fèi)用更低，以便父母能夠重返工作崗位。

In a keynote speech at Bloomberg last month, Hunt urged early retirees and those struggling to find a new job to rejoin the workforce. “We need you, and we will look at the conditions necessary to make it worth your while,” he said.

亨特上個月在彭博社發(fā)表主題演講時，敦促提前退休的人和那些努力尋找新工作的人重新加入勞動力大軍。他說：“我們需要你，我們會考慮必要的條件，讓你的付出值得?！?/p>

But for more than a decade now, due to a range of Conservative policies, families working full-time across the income spectrum have been finding themselves earning less money than if they worked part-time.

但十多年來，由于保守黨的一系列政策，各個收入階層的全職家庭發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的收入比兼職家庭要少。

William, 58, a single father from Bedfordshire, is one of several people who told the Guardian that they would like to work more, but are financially better off for reducing their hours.

58歲的威廉是來自貝德福德郡的一位單身父親，他和其他幾個人一樣告訴《衛(wèi)報》，他們想多工作，但減少工作時間會讓他們的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況更好。

He works 11 hours a week as a community care worker, visiting elderly clients in their own homes.

他是一名社區(qū)護(hù)理員，每周工作11個小時，到老年客戶家中看望他們。

“I’ve reduced my hours because I’m receiving universal credit. If I work over a certain number of hours or earn over ￡334 a month, my award is reduced. This means that I don’t get paid for some of the hours worked in real terms.

“我減少了工作時間，因?yàn)槲艺讷@得通用福利金。如果我工作超過一定小時數(shù)或每月收入超過334英鎊，我的福利金就會減少。這意味著我的一些工作時間是沒有實(shí)際報酬的。

“My job requires that I use my car and although I receive a mileage allowance, this gets added to my take-home pay and again my UC award is reduced, so effectively I don’t receive the money I lay out for fuel.”

“我的工作要求我開車，雖然我有里程補(bǔ)貼，但這被計入了我的實(shí)得工資，于是我的通用福利金又減少了，所以實(shí)際上我沒有拿回我的油錢?！?br>原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

William has calculated that he would have to nearly triple his hours to 32 a week to be better off by ￡100 a month. “Believe me, I’d love to work more hours, but it’s just not worth it.”

威廉計算過，他必須將每周工作時間增加近兩倍，達(dá)到32個小時，每月才能多賺100英鎊。“相信我，我很想多工作幾個小時，但這不值得。”

He expects that he will have to quit care work and find a different job when new rules requiring some universal credit claimants to work more hours come into effect.

他預(yù)計，當(dāng)要求一些通用福利金申請人工作更長時間的新規(guī)定生效時，他將不得不辭掉護(hù)理工作，找一份不同的工作。

“If this affects me I’ll be forced to leave the care profession and work in a shop or factory instead, without fuel costs. It’s those kinds of things that prevent people from staying in the care sector and other fields of work.”

“如果這影響到我，我將被迫離開護(hù)理行業(yè)，在商店或工廠工作，不需要汽油成本。正是這些事情阻礙了人們留在護(hù)理部門和其他領(lǐng)域的工作?！?br>原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Kate Mitchell, 39, a mother of two from Guildford, who used to earn a ￡40,000 annual salary in a private consultancy, said unaffordable childcare as well as commuting costs to London led her to reduce her hours.

39歲的凱特·米切爾來自吉爾福德是兩個孩子的母親，她曾在一家私人咨詢公司工作，年薪4萬英鎊。她說，負(fù)擔(dān)不起的托兒費(fèi)用和往返倫敦的通勤費(fèi)用導(dǎo)致她減少了工作時間。

Mitchell now works 25 hours, remotely, earning ￡1,100 a month. She pays nursery costs of about ￡700 a month, which would rise to ￡1,595 for a full-time place, including 15 free hours of government-funded childcare a week.

米切爾現(xiàn)在遠(yuǎn)程工作25小時，每月收入1100英鎊。她每月支付約700英鎊的托兒所費(fèi)用，如果是全職托兒所，費(fèi)用將增加到1595英鎊，其中包括政府資助的每周15小時免費(fèi)托兒服務(wù)。

“Together with after-school club fees and around ￡400 commuting costs I’d have to spend more on going to work than I’d be earning full-time in a London office, we’d be financially worse off than if I didn’t work at all.

“再加上課外社團(tuán)費(fèi)和大約400英鎊的通勤費(fèi)，我上班要花的錢比我在倫敦全職工作掙的錢還要多，我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況比我不工作更差了。

“I’m now making a profit of around ￡350 a month. I’d love to work more, to get back into the career I spent a decade building. I’ve put any kind of ambition on hold, there is just zero incentive to try and earn more.”

“我現(xiàn)在每月能賺350英鎊左右。我想做更多的工作，回到我花了十年建立起來的事業(yè)中。我把所有的抱負(fù)都擱置了，根本沒有動力去掙更多的錢。”
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

A number of middle and higher earner couples told the Guardian that punitive childcare costs and income taxation meant that going part-time and generating income through property ownership was financially more lucrative than full-time employment.

一些中高收入夫婦在接受《衛(wèi)報》采訪時表示，懲罰性的育兒成本和所得稅意味著，兼職工作和通過擁有房產(chǎn)獲得收入在經(jīng)濟(jì)上比全職工作更有利可圖。

A couple from Cheshire, a primary school teacher and an engineer, said they had both reduced their hours to save about ￡2,000 monthly in childcare fees, resulting in roughly the same financial circumstances as when they were working full-time.

一對來自柴郡的夫婦，一個是小學(xué)教師，一個是工程師，他們表示，為了每月節(jié)省約2000英鎊的托兒費(fèi)，他們都減少了工作時間，結(jié)果他們的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況與全職工作時大致相同。

“I can’t see us ever going back to full-time work as our better work-life balance is priceless, so I do worry about our pension contributions,” one of them said. “I’ve increased mine to counter the reduction in pay and we’re looking into getting a rental property to make up the difference.”

其中一人說：“我覺得我們再也不可能回到全職工作了，因?yàn)楦玫墓ぷ髋c生活平衡是無價的，所以我確實(shí)擔(dān)心我們的養(yǎng)老金繳款。我已經(jīng)提高了繳款，以彌補(bǔ)工資的減少，我們正在考慮租房子來彌補(bǔ)差額?！?/p>

Between July 2021 and July 2022, the average UK house price increased by ￡39,000, meaning many homeowners earned more money with their house than in their job, as the current average salary for full-time UK employees is ￡33,000 as of November 2022, according to ONS.

根據(jù)國家統(tǒng)計局的數(shù)據(jù)，在2021年7月至2022年7月期間，英國平均房價上漲了3.9萬英鎊，這意味著許多房主靠房子賺的錢比他們的工作賺的錢還要多，因?yàn)榻刂?022年11月，英國全職員工的平均工資是3.3萬英鎊。

EasyJet pilot McKenzie, a father of three, has similar plans: he will soon trade his full-time contract for a part-time one and flip properties on the side.

易捷航空的飛行員麥肯齊是三個孩子的父親，他也有類似的計劃：他很快就會把全職合同換成兼職合同，并在業(yè)余時間賣房子。

“I’m a captain, and the only reason I’m still working full-time is because my pension pot is small, due to time abroad. I currently contribute the maximum ￡40,000 to my pension, but in a few years I’ll absolutely go part-time, like a significant number of my colleagues already have, to avoid paying an effective tax rate of 62% [including 2% national insurance, on income between ￡100,000 and ￡125,140 due to the loss of the personal tax-free allowance].

“我是一名機(jī)長，我仍然全職工作的唯一原因是因?yàn)槲业酿B(yǎng)老金很少，因?yàn)槲以趪夤ぷ髁艘欢螘r間。我目前繳納的養(yǎng)老金上限為4萬英鎊，但幾年后，我絕對會做兼職，就像我的很多同事已經(jīng)做的那樣，以避免為收入支付62%的實(shí)際稅率（由于失去個人免稅免稅額，包括收入在10萬英鎊至125140英鎊之間的2%的國民保險）。

“It’s just not worth it to wake up every day at 3am to work in the job I trained for: I’ll have the same take-home pay as I do now – ￡5,000 a month – by going part-time and reducing my pension contributions.

“每天凌晨3點(diǎn)起床從事我為之而培訓(xùn)的工作是不值得的：通過做兼職和減少養(yǎng)老金繳納，我將獲得和現(xiàn)在一樣的實(shí)得工資——每月5000英鎊。”

“This government has given us 12 years of fiscal drag and asset price bubbles, and people no longer see that work pays. It’s crackers.”

“本屆政府給我們帶來了12年的財政拖累和資產(chǎn)價格泡沫，人們不再認(rèn)為（全職）工作是劃算的。這太瘋狂了?！?/p>