I have been puzzled by the way that different cultures approach service workers’ pay

在我的首次东京之旅中，我曾因为小费问题，颇为尴尬地与一位出租车司机僵持不下。

ever since I was involved in an awkward stand-off over a tip with a taxi driver during my first trip to Tokyo.

自那以后，我对于不同文化处理服务业员工报酬的方式一直感到困惑。

No tip necessary, no tip necessary, the driver kept saying in broken English.

那位司机一个劲地用蹩脚的英语说：不用给小费，不用给小费。

But I continued on bullheaded: No please, please, do take this.

而我坚持己见：不，请你一定要收下。

In the background my husband was shaking his head, as a small scene developed at the hotel doorway.

我们在酒店门前发生了小小的争执，我丈夫则在后面摇头。

He had, of course, warned me this could happen.

他当然警告过我会发生这种事。

I told you so! he snarked, as I finally conceded.

在我最终屈服后，他带着挖苦的语气说道：我跟你说过吧。

I was clueless to the fact that in Japan tipping is considered an insult.

我完全不知道在日本给小费会被认为是一种侮辱。

The price is the price.

价格是多少就是多少。

I had stupidly tried to force some yen into the taxi driver’s hand.

我却愚蠢地试图强行把一些日元塞入出租车司机的手中。

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.

为什么在美国等一些国家小费被认为必不可少，而在欧洲却被认为可以视服务质量随意给的？我曾把这种文化上的差异归因于当地习俗或者监管规则。

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.

不过，最近在零工经济（这种经济模式正试图全面取消小费）领域的一段体验让我认识到，上述差异或许与我们对服务业员工敬业程度的期望密切相关。

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.

我今年在英国一家名为Deliveroo的送餐服务公司工作过一段时间，为了做一些研究用于撰写打算发表在英国《金融时报》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，员工需要多积极才能赚到高峰工资（surge rates，需求大幅上升时员工报酬也升高）？

Because surge rate periods cannot be predicted, workers must be on call all the time.

由于这种高峰工资时期无法预测，员工必须一直处于待命状态。

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.

我还想知道，在零工经济中，有没有可能像Deliveroo和优步(Uber)等公司时常声称的那样，赚得超过全国最低工资标准（每小时7.2英镑）。

I discovered that surge rate periods were too few to supplement the basic rates.

我发现能够赚取高峰工资的时候很少，不足以对基本工资构成补充。

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.

同时，在低薪服务业岗位，传统上对低工资起补偿作用的一个因素——干得好有小费——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.

为了终结现金必要性、创造完美无摩擦的体验，Deliveroo及类似企业的应用开发人员把交易过程变得十分不人性化，从而让支付小费变得很不方便。

Uber even encourages riders not to tip drivers.

优步甚至鼓励乘客不要给司机小费。

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.

为了把盈利潜力最大化，零工经济的员工往往会成为多面手，他们会尽可能多地登录不同的任务应用，以便尽最大可能抓住赚取高峰工资的机会。

Yet when they do so, they undermine their own economies of scale.

然而，当他们这么做的时候，他们会削弱自身的规模经济效应。

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.

从需要投资于多种工具和设备，到从一单交易转到另一单交易带来的负担，多任务同时进行会带来新的成本。

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.

零工经济实际上让服务业熟练员工降低了身价，他们从自身经验中明白了一点，从专业化角度来讲，让低峰期价格和高峰期价格保持平稳是有意义的。

It has replaced them with amateurs with no capacity to plan ahead — and little time to hustle for compensatory tips.

零工经济却用没有能力提前计划、也没有时间去争取补偿性小费的生手代替了这些熟练员工。

In the US, waiting staff depend on the discretionary kindness of strangers to make a living wage.

在美国，侍应生要靠陌生人酌情给予的善意赚取生活费。

Some might say that leads to better and more responsive service workers.

有的人也许会说，这会提高服务业员工的素质和积极性。

In continental Europe the service cost is always included in the bill.

而在欧洲大陆，服务成本始终包括在账单里。

Yes, critics could argue that is why France has so many shoddy and obnoxious waiters.

没错，批评人士可能会说，这正是法国为什么有这么多差劲而讨厌的服务生的原因。

Incentives matter — and French waiters do not have any.

激励机制十分重要，法国却没有针对服务生的激励机制。

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.

不过，在法国，服务业工作被视为合法、受人尊重的职业，适合每个人——而不只是学生、外来移民或兼职员工。

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.

在零工经济中，员工很难赚到最低标准的薪资，又不能指望从现金交易中得到收小费的机会，自愿给小费机制完全不适用。

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.

美国传统餐饮行业在这方面无需监管，是源自当地风俗习惯：没人好意思不支付最少为账单20%的小费。

This amounts to a culture of respecting the true cost of professional service.

这实际上是一种尊重专业服务真实成本的文化。

The digital economy will have to develop the same culture if it is to avoid intervention by regulators.

如果数字化经济要避免监管机构的干预，就必须发展出同样的文化。

If not, the career waiter or waitress will be consigned to history.

如果不能做到这一点，全职服务生将会成为历史。

That would unleash a bitter race to the bottom, undermining all our living standards.

这会引发竞次(race to the bottom)现象，从而降低我们所有人的生活水准。