“不值得”：為什麼在英國全職工作不再划算_風聞

【來源龍騰網】

正文原創翻譯：

‘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”：為什麼在英國全職工作不再划算

——英國經濟正在萎縮，工人短缺——那麼為什麼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。除了育兒和其他費用外，通勤被認為是全職工作中負擔不起的因素之一。）

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，更嚴格的福利規定促進了英國的就業，但也將工人困在沒有前途的工作中，削弱了他們從兼職轉向全職的動力。

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.

由於利率上升、税收增加，預計英國將是今年唯一一個經濟出現萎縮的主要工業國家，政府正在瘋狂地尋找刺激經濟增長的方法。

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.

隨着財政大臣傑里米·亨特發起“為什麼最近有數十萬人離開了勞動力市場”的調查，並且財政部渴望於讓更多的人找到全職工作，在勞動力持續短缺的情況下，為什麼沒有更多的人增加工作時間的問題再次成為了焦點。

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.

英國國家統計局的最新官方數據顯示，目前有超過800萬人（佔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.

有影響力的保守黨後座議員正在向財政大臣施加壓力，要求他出台一系列措施，使兒童保育費用更低，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。他説：“我們需要你，我們會考慮必要的條件，讓你的付出值得。”

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，由於保守黨的一系列政策，各個收入階層的全職家庭發現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《衞報》，他們想多工作，但減少工作時間會讓他們的經濟狀況更好。

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

他是一名社區護理員，每週工作11個小時，到老年客户家中看望他們。

“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，因為我正在獲得通用福利金。如果我工作超過一定小時數或每月收入超過334英鎊，我的福利金就會減少。這意味着我的一些工作時間是沒有實際報酬的。

“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，雖然我有里程補貼，但這被計入了我的實得工資，於是我的通用福利金又減少了，所以實際上我沒有拿回我的油錢。”

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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，他必須將每週工作時間增加近兩倍，達到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.

他預計，當要求一些通用福利金申請人工作更長時間的新規定生效時，他將不得不辭掉護理工作，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，我將被迫離開護理行業，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理部門和其他領域的工作。”

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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，她曾在一傢俬人諮詢公司工作，年薪4萬英鎊。她説，負擔不起的托兒費用和往返倫敦的通勤費用導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.

米切爾現在遠程工作25小時，每月收入1100英鎊。她每月支付約700英鎊的託兒所費用，如果是全職託兒所，費用將增加到1595英鎊，其中包括政府資助的每週15小時免費托兒服務。

“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.

“再加上課外社團費和大約400英鎊的通勤費，我上班要花的錢比我在倫敦全職工作掙的錢還要多，我們的經濟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中。我把所有的抱負都擱置了，根本沒有動力去掙更多的錢。”

原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉載請註明出處

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《衞報》採訪時表示，懲罰性的育兒成本和所得税意味着，兼職工作和通過擁有房產獲得收入在經濟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，一個是小學教師，一個是工程師，他們表示，為了每月節省約2000英鎊的托兒費，他們都減少了工作時間，結果他們的經濟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.”

其中一人説：“我覺得我們再也不可能回到全職工作了，因為更好的工作與生活平衡是無價的，所以我確實擔心我們的養老金繳款。我已經提高了繳款，以彌補工資的減少，我們正在考慮租房子來彌補差額。”

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.

根據國家統計局的數據，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，這意味着許多房主靠房子賺的錢比他們的工作賺的錢還要多，因為截至2022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，並在業餘時間賣房子。

“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].

“我是一名機長，我仍然全職工作的唯一原因是因為我的養老金很少，因為我在國外工作了一段時間。我目前繳納的養老金上限為4萬英鎊，但幾年後，我絕對會做兼職，就像我的很多同事已經做的那樣，以避免為收入支付62%的實際税率（由於失去個人免税免税額，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點起牀從事我為之而培訓的工作是不值得的：通過做兼職和減少養老金繳納，我將獲得和現在一樣的實得工資——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價格泡沫，人們不再認為（全職）工作是划算的。這太瘋狂了。”