你工资多少？

时间：2021-07-01 08:01:41　来源：雅意学习网本文已影响人

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　　How much do you earn？ There are few questions that British people find so excruciating1—or rude. Walking around Bristol on a heaven-scented spring day， buttonholing random strangers about their personal finances， I sense most would prefer it if I were asking when they last passed stool， or voted Conservative.2
　　“I’d say that’s a cheek3！” says a gentleman in his 80s. But why？“I’m British， that’s why. My business is my business.”
　　I try a younger guy in athletic gear， performing stretches by a park bench.4 “If you ain’t paying me， I ain’t interested，” he says. A model neoliberal5 citizen.
　　I approach a couple of mothers in the park and cast a shadow over their picnic rug6. One is a stay-at-home mum； the other is not. “It’s not something you want to talk about in front of your friends， is it， what you earn？” the latter says. “Some people are underpaid， some people are overpaid， life isn’t fair.” Her friend pointedly attends to her child.7 I apologise for ruining their lunch.
　　It’s awkward， isn’t it？ The median annual income in the UK， according to the most recent Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings，8 is￡28，677 for full-time employees. Jeremy Corbyn’s last published tax return puts his income at￡136，762； Theresa May’s was￡117，350 but she hasn’t published one since she became prime minister； David Cameron never published a tax return， but he did publish his earnings in light of the Panama Papers scandal：￡200，307 from salary and rent in 2014/15.9 José Mourinho10 is on a reported￡15m at Manchester United and is apparently unhappy. Chris Evans11 makes more than￡2.2m at the BBC. A nurse starts at￡22，128. It ought to be one of the least personal things about us—a simple data point， one that’s not so hard to estimate， surely—and yet clearly it’s emotive. “I don’t think that’s a very nice conversation to have publicly at all，” as Kate Winslet told the BBC when pressed on the issue of gender pay disparities in Hollywood a couple of years ago.12 “It seems quite a strange thing to be discussing out in the open like that. I am a very lucky woman and I’m quite happy with how things are ticking along13.”
　　The squeamishness is not limited to Britain—Donald Trump is in no rush to publish his tax returns—but it is acute here，14 and only made more so by the recent revelations about the gender pay gap. In Sweden， Norway and Finland， you can look up anyone’s salary online—a practice dating back to the 18th century. （Well， not the online bit.） And even with much more equal parental rights， they still have gender pay gaps similar to ours， about 15%—18%. In Massachusetts and other US states， less transparency is touted as the answer；15 employers aren’t allowed to ask what your previous salary was when you apply for a new job， to stop low pay following women and minorities throughout their career. And perhaps there’s something to be said for not knowing. A recently qualified teacher I know—whose salary I might estimate at about￡24，000—defended our reticence：“It’s a British thing which I am proud of—it seems crassly materialistic to discuss money in detail with acquaintances， or even friends.”16

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你工资多少？

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