多面手的零工經濟員工再無小費
I have been puzzled by the way that different cultures approach service workers’ pay
在我的首次東京之旅中，我曾因爲小費問題，頗爲尷尬地與一位出租車司機僵持不下。
ever since I was involved in an awkward stand-off over a tip with a taxi driver during my first trip to Tokyo.
自那以後，我對於不同文化處理服務業員工報酬的方式一直感到困惑。
No tip necessary, no tip necessary, the driver kept saying in broken English.
那位司機一個勁地用蹩腳的英語說：不用給小費，不用給小費。
But I continued on bullheaded: No please, please, do take this.
而我堅持己見：不，請你一定要收下。
In the background my husband was shaking his head, as a small scene developed at the hotel doorway.
我們在酒店門前發生了小小的爭執，我丈夫則在後面搖頭。
He had, of course, warned me this could happen.
他當然警告過我會發生這種事。
I told you so! he snarked, as I finally conceded.
在我最終屈服後，他帶着挖苦的語氣說道：我跟你說過吧。
I was clueless to the fact that in Japan tipping is considered an insult.
我完全不知道在日本給小費會被認爲是一種侮辱。
The price is the price.
價格是多少就是多少。
I had stupidly tried to force some yen into the taxi driver’s hand.
我卻愚蠢地試圖強行把一些日元塞入出租車司機的手中。
Why is tipping deemed essential in, for example, the US but judged to be merit-based and discretionary in Europe? Such cultural differences I once put down to local quirks or regulations.
爲什麼在美國等一些國家小費被認爲必不可少，而在歐洲卻被認爲可以視服務質量隨意給的？我曾把這種文化上的差異歸因於當地習俗或者監管規則。
But a recent experience in the gig economy, which is trying to do away with tips altogether, has made me realise that those differences may be closely tied to how career-minded we expect our service workers to be.
不過，最近在零工經濟（這種經濟模式正試圖全面取消小費）領域的一段體驗讓我認識到，上述差異或許與我們對服務業員工敬業程度的期望密切相關。
This year I spent time working for Deliveroo, a UK food courier service, for research into a story I was writing for the Financial Times.
我今年在英國一家名爲Deliveroo的送餐服務公司工作過一段時間，爲了做一些研究用於撰寫打算髮表在英國《金融時報》上的一篇文章。
I wanted to figure out how responsive workers needed to be to earn lucrative surge rates, where workers are paid more when demand increases.
我想知道的是，員工需要多積極才能賺到高峯工資（surge rates，需求大幅上升時員工報酬也升高）？
Because surge rate periods cannot be predicted, workers must be on call all the time.
由於這種高峯工資時期無法預測，員工必須一直處於待命狀態。
I also wanted to see if it would be possible in the gig economy to earn more than the minimum national wage of ￡7.20 per hour, as companies such as Deliveroo and Uber often claim.
我還想知道，在零工經濟中，有沒有可能像Deliveroo和優步(Uber)等公司時常聲稱的那樣，賺得超過全國最低工資標準（每小時7.2英鎊）。
I discovered that surge rate periods were too few to supplement the basic rates.
我發現能夠賺取高峯工資的時候很少，不足以對基本工資構成補充。
Meanwhile, the one element of a low-paid service job that had traditionally compensated for low rates — a tip for a job well done — had largely been done away with.
同時，在低薪服務業崗位，傳統上對低工資起補償作用的一個因素——幹得好有小費——基本上被取消了。
In their effort to end the necessity for cash and create the perfect, frictionless experience, app developers for Deliveroo and others like it had dehumanised the transaction to such a degree that tips had become inconveniences.
爲了終結現金必要性、創造完美無摩擦的體驗，Deliveroo及類似企業的應用開發人員把交易過程變得十分不人性化，從而讓支付小費變得很不方便。
Uber even encourages riders not to tip drivers.
優步甚至鼓勵乘客不要給司機小費。
To maximise earning potential, gig economy workers often become jacks of all trades, signed up to as many different task apps as possible to capture surge rate opportunities as best they can.
爲了把盈利潛力最大化，零工經濟的員工往往會成爲多面手，他們會盡可能多地登錄不同的任務應用，以便盡最大可能抓住賺取高峯工資的機會。
Yet when they do so, they undermine their own economies of scale.
然而，當他們這麼做的時候，他們會削弱自身的規模經濟效應。
From the need to invest in multiple tools and equipment to the burden of having to turn your hand from one trade to the next, multitasking introduces new costs.
從需要投資於多種工具和設備，到從一單交易轉到另一單交易帶來的負擔，多任務同時進行會帶來新的成本。
What the gig economy really does is undercut seasoned service workers who have learnt through experience that it makes sense to smooth prices across low and high peak periods for the sake of professionalism.
零工經濟實際上讓服務業熟練員工降低了身價，他們從自身經驗中明白了一點，從專業化角度來講，讓低峯期價格和高峯期價格保持平穩是有意義的。
It has replaced them with amateurs with no capacity to plan ahead — and little time to hustle for compensatory tips.
零工經濟卻用沒有能力提前計劃、也沒有時間去爭取補償性小費的生手代替了這些熟練員工。
In the US, waiting staff depend on the discretionary kindness of strangers to make a living wage.
在美國，侍應生要靠陌生人酌情給予的善意賺取生活費。
Some might say that leads to better and more responsive service workers.
有的人也許會說，這會提高服務業員工的素質和積極性。
In continental Europe the service cost is always included in the bill.
而在歐洲大陸，服務成本始終包括在賬單裏。
Yes, critics could argue that is why France has so many shoddy and obnoxious waiters.
沒錯，批評人士可能會說，這正是法國爲什麼有這麼多差勁而討厭的服務生的原因。
Incentives matter — and French waiters do not have any.
激勵機制十分重要，法國卻沒有針對服務生的激勵機制。
But it is also true that in France, service work is considered a legitimate and respectable career choice for everyone — not just students, migrants or casual workers.
不過，在法國，服務業工作被視爲合法、受人尊重的職業，適合每個人——而不只是學生、外來移民或兼職員工。
In the gig economy, where workers struggle to make the minimum wage but cannot rely on a cash exchange to generate a tip-giving opportunity, the discretionary system just does not cut it.
在零工經濟中，員工很難賺到最低標準的薪資，又不能指望從現金交易中得到收小費的機會，自願給小費機制完全不適用。
The traditional US restaurant industry bypasses regulation because of a local quirk: no one dares not to tip a minimum 20 per cent of the bill.
美國傳統餐飲行業在這方面無需監管，是源自當地風俗習慣：沒人好意思不支付最少爲賬單20%的小費。
This amounts to a culture of respecting the true cost of professional service.
這實際上是一種尊重專業服務真實成本的文化。
The digital economy will have to develop the same culture if it is to avoid intervention by regulators.
如果數字化經濟要避免監管機構的干預，就必須發展出同樣的文化。
If not, the career waiter or waitress will be consigned to history.
如果不能做到這一點，全職服務生將會成爲歷史。
That would unleash a bitter race to the bottom, undermining all our living standards.
這會引發競次(race to the bottom)現象，從而降低我們所有人的生活水準。
