加班費新政策挑戰美國工作狂文化

For decades, bosses at publishing houses, glossy magazines, consulting firms, advocacy groups, movie production companies and talent agencies have groomed their assistants to be the next generation of big shots by working them long hours for low wages.

數十年來，出版社、時尚雜誌、諮詢公司、倡導團體、電影製作公司和經紀公司的老闆們通過讓助理們低工資長時間的工作，把他們培養成下一代大人物。

Call it the “Devil Wears Prada” economy, after the novel depicting life working for a fictionalized Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor.

我們可以稱它爲《穿普拉達的女魔頭》(Devil Wears Prada)經濟。這本小說以《Vogue》長期主編安娜·溫圖爾(Anna Wintour)爲創作原型。

But now, with the Obama administration moving to require time-and-a-half overtime pay for most salaried employees making less than $47,476 a year, that business model is suddenly under assault. The change presents more than an economic challenge for the companies that rely on the willingness of young, ambitious workers to trade pay and self-respect for a shot at a prestige job down the road.

但是現在，奧巴馬政府在推動給大部分年薪47476美元以下的工薪族支付1.5倍的加班費，所以這種商業模式突然遭到攻擊。對於依賴雄心勃勃的年輕人願意犧牲報酬和自尊，以換取未來得到體面職位的公司來說，這項變革不只是經濟挑戰。

In the eyes of those who have survived the gantlet of midday coffee runs and late-night emails, the administration’s overtime regulation represents nothing less than the beginnings of a cultural shift, and not necessarily a welcome one.

有些人經受了大中午去買咖啡、深夜收到工作郵件的考驗。在他們看來，政府的加班規定代表着一種文化變遷的開始，但它不一定受人歡迎。

“You want to bump into the boss at 8 o’clock at night,” said Dan Reynolds, chief executive of Workman Publishing, the publisher of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and many of Sandra Boynton’s children’s books.

“你希望在晚上8點撞見老闆，”沃克曼出版公司(Workman Publishing)的首席執行官丹·雷諾茲(Dan Reynolds)說。該公司出版過《海蒂懷孕大百科》(What to Expect When You’re Expecting)以及桑德拉·博因頓(Sandra Boynton)的很多童書。

“I’m interested in how this will affect that,” Mr. Reynolds said. “It’s more of a cultural thing than anything else.”

“我感興趣的是這會如何影響它，”雷諾茲說，“它更多的是一種文化。”

Supporters of the new rule see many benefits, saying it will rein in an overly workaholic atmosphere and perhaps diversify a rarefied world that tends to be white and upscale, thanks to its reliance on social connections and the difficulty of working for scraps without affluent parents.

這項新規的支持者們認爲它有很多益處，稱它將遏制過度拼命工作的文化氛圍，也許還能讓白人和有錢人主導的精英圈子變得多樣化，因爲現在的社會過於依賴人脈，如果沒有富裕的父母，就只能掙到可憐的薪水。

Still, the coming change, which will take effect on Dec. 1, promises to be disorienting for many in these prestige professions.

這項法規將於今年12月1日生效。不過，它可能會讓很多已經身居要職的人感到無所適從。

In a letter to the Labor Department after it proposed the overtime rule last summer, Workman’s general manager, Jill Salayi, suggested that because the company could not afford to pay overtime to all newly eligible staff members or raise their salaries over the new threshold, it would have to cut back their hours in many cases.

去年夏天，美國勞工部(Labor Department)提出此項加班法規後，沃克曼出版公司的總經理吉爾·薩拉伊(Jill Salayi)給勞工部寫了封信，稱該公司無力承受給所有新來的員工支付加班費或將他們的工資提高到新門檻，所以在很多情況下，該公司將不得不縮短他們的工作時間。

“Less will be asked of them,” she argued, “which means they will not receive sufficient career development or see timely advancement and/or promotions.”

“對他們的要求將變少，”她解釋說，“那意味着他們的事業得不到充分發展，他們也無法適時獲得進步或提升。”

(Mr. Reynolds stressed that Workman was confident it would be able to adjust financially.)

（雷諾茲強調說，沃克曼有信心從財務上進行調整。）

Some high-profile nonprofits have raised similar concerns. Ideologically, the United States Public Interest Research Group, founded to fight companies that harm consumers and the environment, and Judicial Watch, which conservative activists created in the 1990s, largely to uncover Clinton administration corruption, have little in common. But both groups, in letters to the Labor Department, argued that the new overtime rule would hamper the mission of training young idealists.

有些受人矚目的非盈利組織表達了類似的顧慮。從意識形態角度講，美國公共利益研究組織(United States Public Interest Research Group)和司法觀察組織(Judicial Watch)幾乎沒有共同之處：前者的宗旨是打擊傷害消費者和環境的公司；後者是保守派活動人士在20世紀90年代創立的，主要是爲了揭露克林頓政府的腐敗行爲。但這兩個組織在給勞工部的信中都表示，新的加班法規將妨礙他們完成培養年輕理想主義者的使命。

“We would send them to the Clinton library if we’re doing an investigation,” Susan Prytherch, who oversees human resources for Judicial Watch, said of junior staff members. “We may think differently before sending them off.”

“我們進行調查時，會派他們去克林頓圖書館查資料，”司法觀察的人力資源主管蘇珊·普拉瑟克(Susan Prytherch)在提起初級職員時說，“以後派他們去之前，我們可能會有不同的考慮。”

According to Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, which represents writers in movies, television and digital media, the model is very much alive and well in Hollywood as well.

電影、電視和數字媒體編劇的代表機構——美國東部編劇協會(Writers Guild of America, East)的執行主管洛厄爾·彼得森(Lowell Peterson)稱，這種模式在好萊塢也依然盛行。

“Being a writer’s assistant is often the way people get into the business of writing for a living” for television, he said.

他說，“擔任編劇的助理往往是年輕人進入這個以編劇爲生的行業的途徑。”

The same goes for politics, according to Raelynn Olson, the managing partner of GMMB, which led the team that produced ads for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “Many of the firm’s senior leaders began their careers in entry-level positions here, including a number of our partners,” Ms. Olson said.

GMMB的執行合夥人雷琳·奧爾森(Raelynn Olson)表示，在政治界也是如此。該公司領導的團隊曾爲巴拉克·奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的兩次總統競選製作廣告。“我們公司的很多高管都是從這裏的初級職位開啓自己的事業，包括我們的一些合夥人，”奧爾森說。

But the problem with trying to perform one job while simultaneously demonstrating aptitude for a bigger one is that it can require extremely long hours.

但是，問題在於，在努力完成一項工作的同時展現自己具有完成更大任務的能力就需要工作很長時間。

At the Washington offices of Burson-Marsteller, which handles public relations and polling for a variety of corporate and political clients, so-called associates typically make $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and often work well beyond 40 hours a week. Some are tasked with pitching in on 24-hour-a-day monitoring of media coverage for clients in addition to their usual work, which can keep them up late into the night.

博雅公關(Burson-Marsteller)的華盛頓分公司爲各種商業和政治客戶處理公共關係、做民意測驗。該公司所謂的合夥人的年薪通常在4萬至5萬美元，每週的工作時間一般遠遠超過40個小時。有些人還要在日常工作之外參與24小時監視媒體對客戶的報道，這可能會讓他們加班至深夜。

Under the previous federal overtime rule, which applied automatically to most salaried employees making less than $23,660, those additional hours were essentially uncounted, making the young associates a relative bargain. (Employees making more than this can be eligible for overtime under a much more subjective “duties” test, but often don’t receive it.) Under the new rule, many of these staff members are to be paid time-and-a-half overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week, if their salary remains unchanged.

按照聯邦政府之前的加班法規——它自動適用於大部分年薪少於23660美元的工薪族——加班時間基本上不予計算，所以這些年輕合夥人是相對便宜的人力成本（年薪高於這個標準的員工按照一個主觀得多的“職責”測試，有資格申請加班費，但這筆錢是往往拿不到手的）。按照新法規，很多這樣的員工如果每週工作超過40個小時，將獲得1.5倍的加班費——如果他們的薪水依然不變的話。

Catherine Sullivan, a company spokeswoman, said: “Burson-Marsteller has always paid, and will continue to pay, overtime to those who are eligible.” She noted that employees below the associate level currently do receive overtime pay and also participate in round-the-clock monitoring.

該公司的一位發言人凱瑟琳·沙利文(Catherine Sullivan)稱：“博雅一直給符合條件的員工支付加班費，以後也將繼續支付。”她指出，比合夥人級別更低的員工目前有加班費，也參與24小時監視工作。

Some organizations in which young staff members are already relatively well compensated said they would probably raise salaries over the new threshold.

一些原本已經給予年輕員工較高報酬的公司表示，他們很可能會把員工報酬提升至超過新標準。

But the economics of that approach may be less practical at smaller companies where labor represents a larger share of overall costs. A former employee of the Wylie Agency said assistant literary agents there — usually eight to 10 in the New York office — typically earned in the $30,000s and routinely worked 50 to 60 hours a week without overtime pay.

但是那種方式可能不太適合小公司，因爲小公司的員工工資在總成本中佔的比例較高。威立版權代理公司(Wylie Agency)的一位前僱員稱，該公司的助理版權代理人的年薪在3萬美元左右，通常每週工作50至60個小時，沒有加班費。該公司的紐約分分公司通常有8至10位版權代理人。

The former Wylie employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, said that there was such an expectation of long hours that anyone arriving after 9 a.m. or leaving before 6:30 p.m. generally felt compelled to email the entire office, giving a reason for being AWOL.

威立公司的這位前僱員由於害怕遭到報復，所以要求匿名。此人稱，大家都覺得公司期望員工長時間工作，所以上午9點之後上班或下午6點半之前下班的員工通常覺得有必要給整個辦公室的同事發郵件，解釋離崗原因。

Andrew Wylie, who runs the agency, said he would consider paying time and a half if he asked junior staff members to work overtime, but not if they worked long hours of their own volition. “What am I supposed to do, sit at the door with a stopwatch?” he said. “I’m not going to do that.”

這家公司的老闆安德魯·威立(Andrew Wylie)說，如果是他自己要求初級員工加班，他會考慮支付1.5倍的加班費，但如果是他們自願加班，他不會給加班費。“你要我怎麼辦？拿着秒錶坐在門口？”他說，“我不會那樣做。”

David Manson, a longtime television producer who has worked on such shows as “House of Cards” and “Bloodline,” said that some entry-level jobs were so widely sought after that the new overtime rule was unlikely to affect either pay or hours, at least at smaller companies.

曾參與《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)和《至親血統》(Bloodline)等電視劇的資深電視製片人大衛·曼森(David Manson)說，有些初級工作有無數人渴望得到，所以這項新的加班法規不大可能影響薪水或工作時間，至少在小公司是這樣。

Lauren Weisberger, the author of “The Devil Wears Prada,” based her book — which inspired a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway — on her tour as Ms. Wintour’s assistant at Vogue in 1999 and 2000. She said that working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. was typical and that her salary almost certainly put her below minimum wage on an hourly basis.

勞倫·魏絲伯格(Lauren Weisberger)的《穿普拉達的女魔頭》是根據她1999年至2000年在《Vogue》擔任溫圖爾助理的經歷創作的。這本小說2006年被改編成電影，由梅麗爾·斯特里普(Meryl Streep)和安妮·海瑟薇(Anne Hathaway)主演。魏絲伯格說，她在那裏經常是從早7點工作到晚7點，如果按時薪計算，她的薪水幾乎肯定低於最低工資。

It never occurred to her to put in for overtime pay, which Condé Nast, the magazine’s publisher, provides. “I certainly would not have had that conversation with Anna; I would have had to have it with H.R.,” said Ms. Weisberger, whose latest book will be out in July. “I don’t imagine that conversation took place a whole lot.”

她從沒想過申請加班費。她的薪水來自該雜誌的出版公司康泰納仕集團(Condé Nast)。“我肯定不會跟安娜談加班費；要談也得是跟人力資源部的人談，”魏絲伯格說。她的新書將於今年7月出版。“我想這樣的對話很少見吧。”