《经济学人》双语：美国《薪酬透明度法》效果好吗？

原文标题：
Work and pay
Wealth warning
Pay-transparency laws do not work as advertised
工作和薪酬
财富警示
《薪酬透明度法》并不像宣传的那么有效

Which is a pity, as California and Washington have just adopted them
很遗憾，加州和华盛顿刚刚才正式通过该法律

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THE SALARY negotiation has long been one of the trickiest parts of hiring or being hired.
长期以来，薪酬谈判一直是雇主与雇员之间最棘手的问题之一。

Ask for too little and you may leave money on the table; ask for too much and you may not be offered the job at all.
薪酬要求太少，你可能就赚不到该赚的钱；要求太多，你可能就会与工作失之交臂。

In America, this delicate balancing act is becoming less perilous.
在美国，处理这种微妙的平衡关系也变得越来越容易。

On January 1st California and Washington became the latest states in the country to require employers to include minimum and maximum pay ranges in all job advertisements.
1月1日，加利福尼亚州和华盛顿州成为美国最新要求雇主在所有招聘广告中写明最低和最高工资范围的两个州。

Similar laws aimed at levelling the playing field in salary negotiations and reducing gender and racial pay gaps have been passed in Colorado, New York and a handful of cities. In November New York City began enforcing its own law.
科罗拉多州、纽约和少数几个城市也通过了类似的法律，这些法律旨在为薪酬谈判创造平等的环境，减少性别和种族薪酬差距。11月，纽约市的法律开始生效。

Yet despite the popularity of such pay-transparency laws—they now cover roughly a fifth of the American labour force—their effects are still widely misunderstood.
然而，尽管这类薪酬透明度法很受欢迎--现在这类法律覆盖了1/5左右的美国劳动力人口--但其效果却被人们普遍误解了。

[Paragraph 2]
Labour advocates champion pay-transparency laws on the grounds that they will narrow pay disparities.

劳工支持者们拥护《薪酬透明度法》，理由是法律将会缩小薪酬差距。

But research suggests that this is achieved not by boosting the wages of lower-paid workers but by curbing the wages of higher-paid ones.

但研究表明，缩小薪酬差距不是通过提高低收入工人的薪酬，而是通过抑制高收入工人的薪酬来实现的。

A forthcoming paper by economists at the University of Toronto and Princeton University estimates that Canadian salary-disclosure laws implemented between 1996 and 2016 narrowed the gender pay gap of university professors by 20-30%. But there is also evidence that they lower salaries, on average.

多伦多大学和普林斯顿大学的经济学家们即将发表的一篇论文估计，加拿大在1996-2016年间实施的《薪酬披露法》使大学教授的男女薪酬差距缩小了20-30%。但也有证据表明，该法律使平均工资降低。

Another paper by professors at INSEAD, UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell and Columbia University found that a Danish pay-transparency law adopted in 2006 shrank the gender pay gap by 13%, but only because it curbed the wages of male employees.

欧洲工商管理学院、北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校、康奈尔大学和哥伦比亚大学教授们的另一篇论文发现，丹麦2006年通过的《薪酬透明度法》将男女薪酬差距缩小了13%，但这仅仅是因为它抑制了男性员工的工资。

Studies of Britain’s gender-pay-gap law, which was implemented in 2018, have reached similar conclusions.
英国在2018年实施了《男女薪酬差距法》，对其进行的相关研究也得出了类似的结论。

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Another misconception about pay-transparency laws is that they strengthen the bargaining power of workers.

人们对《薪酬透明度法》的另一个误解是，该法律加强了员工的议价能力。

A recent paper by Zoe Cullen of Harvard Business School and Bobby Pakzad-Hurson of Brown University analysed the effects of 13 state laws passed between 2004 and 2016 that were designed to protect the right of workers to ask about the salaries of their co-workers.

哈佛商学院的佐伊·卡伦和布朗大学的鲍比·帕克扎德·赫尔森最近发表了一篇论文，分析了2004-2016年间通过的13个州法律的影响，这些法律旨在保护工人询问同事工资的权利。

The authors found that the laws were associated with a 2% drop in wages, an outcome which the authors attribute to reduced bargaining power.

作者发现，这些法律与工资下降2%有关，作者将这一结果归因于议价能力的下降。

“Although the idea of pay transparency is to give workers the ability to renegotiate away pay discrepancies, it actually shifts the bargaining power from the workers to the employer,” says Mr Pakzad-Hurson. “So wages are more equal,” explains Ms Cullen, “but they’re also lower.”
帕克扎德·赫尔森说：“虽然《薪酬透明度法》的初衷是让雇员有能力在重新谈判时去除薪酬差异，但实际上它将雇员的议价权转移给了雇主。”卡伦女士解释道：“所以工资更平等，但也更低。”

[Paragraph 4]
Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about pay-transparency laws is that they are hard to evade.

也许人们对《薪酬透明度法》最大的误解是，企业很难逃避法律的责任。

In New York City, for example, the law applies to nearly every employer—only those with fewer than four employees are exempt. Companies that violate the law can face fines of up to $250,000.

例如，在纽约市，这项法律几乎适用于所有老板--只有员工数少于4人的老板除外。违反法律的公司可能面临最高25万美元的罚款。

But data provided to The Economist by Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm, show that just 58% of New York City-based job advertisements published in November and December, the first two months the law was in force, included pay ranges.

但劳动力智能公司Revelio Labs向本报提供的数据显示，在法律生效的前两个月，即11月和12月，只有58%的纽约市招聘广告含有薪酬范围。

Some sectors were more law-abiding than others. In information and transport the compliance rate was nearly three-quarters; in the utilities, manufacturing and retail sectors it was under half.
一些行业比其他行业更守法。信息业和运输业的遵守率接近3/4；在公用事业、制造业和零售业，这一数字不足1/2。

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So what is the upside to these new regulations?

那么，这些新规有什么积极效果？

Ms Cullen of Harvard says that to the extent they inform job applicants about which firms and positions pay more, and which pay less, they may lead to more efficient matching between job-seekers and employers.

哈佛大学的卡伦女士表示，在某种程度上，求职者知道公司和职位薪酬的高低，法律可能会使求职者和雇主之间的匹配更有效。

Though anyone who hasn’t worked that out already will be at a disadvantage in any salary negotiation.
但如果你不清楚薪酬范围，你在任何薪酬谈判中都会处于劣势。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量621左右）
原文出自：2023年1月7日《The Economist》United States版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
近年来，越来越多的州正在主动通过薪酬透明度法律，以确保员工掌握所需的更全面的信息。目前，有几个州制定了某种形式的薪酬透明度法律，确切地说是20条；然而，这些法律可以涵盖广泛的问题。例如，大多数薪酬透明度法律都致力于防止薪酬歧视，并为员工提供讨论薪酬的能力。然而，近年来，越来越多的州开始颁布和修订法律，将薪酬披露作为薪酬透明度法律的重要组成部分。十年前，薪酬透明度法在美国几乎是找不到的。今天，越来越多的州开始为了员工的利益而实施它们。事实上，现在至少有十个州通过了法律，要求雇主披露工资范围和福利信息。这些新法律赋予员工更多在工作场所寻求公平待遇的权力。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
Ask for too little and you may leave money on the table; ask for too much and you may not be offered the job at all.
薪酬要求太少，你可能就赚不到该赚的钱；要求太多，你可能就会与工作失之交臂。

But research suggests that this is achieved not by boosting the wages of lower-paid workers but by curbing the wages of higher-paid ones.
但研究表明，缩小薪酬差距不是通过提高低收入工人的薪酬，而是通过抑制高收入工人的薪酬来实现的。

The authors found that the laws were associated with a 2% drop in wages, an outcome which the authors attribute to reduced bargaining power.
作者发现，这些法律与工资下降2%有关，作者将这一结果归因于议价能力的下降。