每日跟讀#735: How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down

Unpredictable schedules can be brutal for hourly workers, upending their lives. New research shows that African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities — particularly women — are much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules, and that the harmful repercussions are felt not just by the workers but also their families.

對時薪工人來說，難以預測的工作時間表是殘酷的，搞亂了他們的生活。最新研究顯示，非裔、西語裔跟其他少數族裔美國人，特別是女性，分配到不規律時間表的機率遠高於他人，而身受其害者除工人本人外，還有他們的家人。

The findings come from continuing surveys of 30,000 hourly workers by the Shift Project at the University of California. The researchers compared workers who earned the same wages, including at the same employers, but had different degrees of predictability in their schedules. Those with irregular hours fared worse — and so did their children.

這些發現來自加州大學持續調查3萬名時薪工人的「輪班計畫」，研究人員比較了薪資相同、但工作時間可預測性不同的工人，包括為同一雇主工作者。工時不規律者狀況最差，他們的孩子亦然。

Black and Hispanic women had the worst schedules, and white men had the best, the researchers found. The children of workers with precarious schedules had worse behavior and more inconsistent child care than those whose parents had stable schedules.

研究人員發現，黑人和西語裔女性的時間表最差，白人男性的最好。跟父母有規律時間表的孩童相比，時間表變動大者的子女行為表現較差，托育情形也更不穩定。

“We’re talking about serious deprivation from relentlessly unstable paychecks,” said Daniel Schneider, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who works on the Shift Project with Kristen Harknett, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

柏克萊加州大學社會學家丹尼爾．施奈德說：「我們談的是持續性不穩定工資造成的嚴重剝奪。」他跟舊金山加州大學的社會學家克里斯汀．哈奈特共同投人「輪班計畫」的研究。

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning policy group, published five papers based on data about various subsets of the 30,000 survey respondents who are part of the Shift Project.

左傾政策團體華盛頓平等成長中心日前發表了五篇論文，悉以取自前述3萬名受訪者各子群體的數據為基礎。

Workers at all income levels are increasingly expected to be on call. At the high end, it can lead to overwork. At the low end, it means getting work schedules at the last minute, varying day to day, and not being guaranteed the number of hours that employees may need to support themselves.

各收入水平的工人都日益被期望能夠隨時待命，這在高收入端可能導致過勞，在低收入端則代表最後一分鐘才拿到工作時間表，每天變動而且無法保證員工獲得可維持生計的工時。

The researchers said the biggest reason for the scheduling differences by race was not because of factors like education or which jobs workers chose, but because managers gave worse shifts to employees who weren’t white.

研究人員說，時間表因種族而有差異，最大原因並非教育等因素，亦非工人所選擇的工作，而是管理者把比較差的班次分給了非白人員工。

Workers of color were 30% more likely than white workers to have had a shift canceled in the last month, for example. They had more schedule instability even when they had the same education, age and other characteristics as white workers, and worked at the same companies.

例如，過去這一個月有色人種工人被取消班次的情況，比白人工人高出三成。即使他們與白人工人教育程度、年齡和其他特點都相同，並且在同一公司上班，他們的時間表還是比較不穩定。

“We think what’s left after parsing out all these other reasons is discrimination,” Schneider said.

施奈德說：「我們認為，在解析了所有其他原因後，剩下的就是歧視。」

Children of parents with precarious schedules were much more likely to exhibit anxiety, guilt or sadness than children of parents with stable schedules, according to survey results from 4,300 workers with children 15 and younger. They were also more likely to argue, destroy things and have tantrums.

針對4300名有15歲以下子女的工人所做調查顯示，父母工作時間表不穩定的孩子，遠比父母時間表穩定的孩子更容易表現出焦慮、內疚或悲傷。他們也更容易爭論、破壞東西跟發脾氣。

Perhaps the biggest stressor for parents with unpredictable schedules was finding child care. Formal, high-quality day cares don’t allow families to drop off children unplanned and rarely operate outside typical business hours.

對於那些時間表難以預測的父母來說，最大的壓力源也許是找到托育服務。正式、高品質的日托服務並不接受家庭臨時送托，且很少在非一般上班時間營業。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/346874/web/#2L-15887608L