美国国家公共电台 NPR Will Work For No Benefits: The Challenges Of Being In The New Contract Workforce

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

All this week we're taking a look at the growing significance of freelance work in our economy. Some 32 million Americans now rely on freelance or contract work for their primary income. That's according to an NPR/Marist Poll released this week. And fewer than half of these workers receive benefits like sick leave or retirement¹ savings². NPR's Yuki Noguchi explores what that means for the future of the social safety net.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE³: Matt Nelson has learned to love his freelance Web developer life. It allows him to split time between pursuing passions and making a living. But it didn't start out that way.

MATT NELSON: I didn't get into freelancing personally by choice, you know? I could not find a job for the life of me. I couldn't get an email back or a phone call for the life of me.

NOGUCHI: Nelson volunteers as leader of the Madison Wisconsin chapter of Spark, a networking group started by the Freelancers⁵ Union. His group is made up of 350 varied⁶ freelancers.

NELSON: Lawyers, realtors. We've got a guy that does bug⁷ farming consulting. We had an astrobiologist.

NOGUCHI: They exchange tips and share stories, often of the indignities⁸ they suffer.

NELSON: I was stiffed by an NGO that was out of state for not quite enough money to make it worth my while to go to small claims court Nebraska. (Laughter). And, as a freelancer⁴, that's tough.

NOGUCHI: Nelson, who is 41, says he and his freelance and contractor⁹ friends often feel they're flying solo without support to fall back on.

NELSON: We really don't have much of a social safety net. And, you know, that's terrifying.

NOGUCHI: This is a vexing¹⁰ problem for freelancers and policymakers. Virginia Senator Mark Warner worries workers without benefits will strain tight public budgets even more. He says freelancers ought to be able to get benefits that they can keep, regardless where they work. Warner sponsored a bill to encourage experimentation¹¹ with those types of programs.

MARK WARNER: If we don't have a social contract for this workforce¹², if we don't have social insurance that moves with the workers then I feel like the economic discontent and economic insecurity that comes from working with no safety net under you would rise dramatically.

NOGUCHI: Rene Flores, a Los Angeles freight truck driver, is living that reality. Trucking deregulation turned most drivers into contractors¹³ four decades ago. But Flores says the company didn't treat him as a free agent.

RENE FLORES: (Through interpreter) They always assigned me the work they wanted to do. They would always send me where they wanted to go. They always set the price. I never did.

NOGUCHI: Being a contractor, he says, only meant he had to pay for his own gas and truck repairs, and the company didn't give him health insurance, which became a huge problem when he fell on the job three years ago.

FLORES: (Speaking Spanish).

NOGUCHI: Flores developed a giant hernia but endured the pain without medical care. He complained about the lack of benefits in a newspaper interview and got fired. He took a new job but found he couldn't work without surgery. So Flores borrowed $10,000 from friends to get a cheaper surgery in Mexico. He returned to work still bandaged and bleeding.

FLORES: (Through interpreter) I'm also worried about my family. I don't have the resources to keep going for two more weeks and pay my rent and my bills.

NOGUCHI: The toll¹⁴ of insecurity isn't just financial.

CAROLINA SALAS: Being a freelancer, you really have to, really have to be on top of your emotional and mental health.

NOGUCHI: Carolina Salas is 32 and freelances in New York City helping¹⁵ medical practices attract new patients. Salas says the stress and demands of freelance work pinched her sciatic nerve, immobilizing her for six months.

SALAS: As a contractor, the expectations of you are much higher than if you were an employee. They're moving so quickly, and they have so little consideration or awareness¹⁶ for you that they sometimes forget that you're actually human.

NOGUCHI: She says defending one's humanity is hard. Clients control the purse, after all, and there are fewer legal protections for contractors compared to full-time¹⁷ employees.

SALAS: People are not talking about this because people say it's the sexy thing to do, everybody's doing it. It's, like, actually, no. If you just start talking to people and you start talking to them about their emotional state and their sense of self-worth, they'll tell you that they've taken a hit and that it's hard.

NOGUCHI: Salas emigrated from Venezuela and has freelanced for eight years. In that time she's learned to track her time and expenses, push back on unrealistic deadlines and save for retirement and emergencies. But she says not all freelancers are equally equipped.

SALAS: That is what concerns me because I come from a place where there was not much of a middle class, and I know what that looks like. And so I'm not saying that, you know, the United States is going in that direction, but I'm very familiar with inequality.

NOGUCHI: Those worries are not unfounded, says Sara Horowitz, founder¹⁸ of the Freelancers Union.

SARA HOROWITZ: There are really big risks in freelancing because the income is so episodic and freelancers aren't entitled to unemployment insurance, and this is really bad for low-wage workers in particular.

NOGUCHI: Horowitz says freelancers need to band together. She's an advocate for things like union-sponsored health insurance. The Freelancers Union, for example, has offered it to its members for two decades.

HOROWITZ: The answer is to build this safety net that's universal for everybody, not to say, this is only for very low-wage workers, nor is it to say, this is for highly skilled professional workers, but actually, they're all going through this together.

NOGUCHI: The best antidote¹⁹ to fear, she says, is to create a new social safety net where freelancers can rely on each other. And with a growing group of tens of millions of Americans freelancing, she says, that's also a powerful voting bloc²⁰. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

1 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

2 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 freelancer   

n.自由职业者

参考例句：

• He has great interest in working as a freelancer.他对做个自由职业人很感兴趣。
• It's not always easy to make it as a freelancer.做个自由职业人，要能时常感觉满足，可不容易。

5 freelancers   

n.自由作家，自由记者( freelancer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A lot of proof-reading is put out to freelancers. 校对工作有很多是请外人做的。 来自辞典例句
• Its benefits plan for freelancers is highly competitive in the industry. 在本行业内它的福利方案是很有竞争力的。 来自互联网

6 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

7 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

8 indignities   

n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The soldiers who were captured suffered many indignities at the hands of the enemy. 被俘的士兵在敌人手中受尽侮辱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• What sort of indignities would he be forced to endure? 他会被迫忍受什么样的侮辱呢？ 来自辞典例句

9 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

10 vexing   

adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• It is vexing to have to wait a long time for him. 长时间地等他真使人厌烦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Lately a vexing problem had grown infuriatingly worse. 最近发生了一个讨厌的问题，而且严重到令人发指的地步。 来自辞典例句

11 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

12 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

13 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

15 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

16 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

17 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

18 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

19 antidote   

n.解毒药，解毒剂

参考例句：

• There is no known antidote for this poison.这种毒药没有解药。
• Chinese physicians used it as an antidote for snake poison.中医师用它来解蛇毒。

20 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。