評論
打印
Finance and economics
財經商業
Civil servants and austerity
公務員與財政緊縮
The times they aren't a-changin
不曾變革的時代
Civil-service payrolls have held up surprisingly well
一直以來，公務員的薪酬都出奇地好
AFTER the party, the hangover.
盛宴之后，宿醉來臨。
When debt-fuelled economic growth came to a crashing halt in the financial crisis of 2008, governments across much of the rich world sought to cut spending.
在2008年的經濟危機中，由債務推動的經濟增長模式徹底崩潰，隨后許多富裕經濟體政府則力圖縮減開支。
One obvious target was the state's payroll.
而其中一個明顯的著手點便是公務員薪酬支出。
Leviathan's minions are certainly costly.
利維坦仆從們的耗費當然不菲。
In the European Union public-sector wages and salaries take up about 10% of GDP.
在歐盟國家當中，公共部門的薪水支出大約占國民總收入的10%。
The Initiative for Policy Dialogue, based at Columbia University, reckons that since 2010 almost 100 governments have set out plans to cut their payrolls.
據哥倫比亞大學的政策對話倡議組織估計，自2010年以來，已有接近100個政府著手削減他們的公務員薪酬開支。
Some cuts may be savage.
一些裁員計劃或許能用殘忍來形容。
The headcount in many British government departments may fall by as much as 40% by 2019 from current levels, says a recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank.
近期一篇來自英國政府智囊團財政研究院的報告表明，英國許多政府部門將于在2019年之前裁減目前總數40%的員工。
Relative to its 2012 level Italy plans to jettison 20% of public-administration managers by 2016.
而意大利政府則計劃于2016年之前裁減相當于2012年總量20%的公務員。
However, aggregated data on public-sector headcounts offer some surprises.
然而，公共部門員工的統計數據卻有些出人意料。
Whereas Britain's public-sector workforce has already contracted by 8% since 2007, in Germany and France the number has increased.
自2007年起英國政府公務員人數已縮減了8%，與此相反的是德國與法國方面卻在增加。
More intriguing still is what has happened to compensation costs—the amount governments pay bureaucrats in wages and salaries, but not pensions.
更耐人尋味的是官僚薪酬待遇變化情況，而不是津貼方面的問題。
Of the 30 countries in a Eurostat database, half are spending more after inflation on public employees than they were in 2007, even in cases where headcount has fallen.
據歐盟統計局的資料顯示，有半數國家公務員薪酬開支與2007年的水平相比有所提升。
The euro zone as a whole spends only 1.7% less on government wages than it did six years ago.
其中部分國家甚至已經著手削減了其公務員規模。以歐元區國家作為整體來統計，其公務員薪酬開支僅比6年前減少了1.7%。
Belgium spends 10% more, Luxembourg 24%.
與此同時，比利時政府反而增加了10%，盧森堡增加了24%。
And since 2007, 21 countries, including Cyprus, Italy and France, have not cut the proportion of GDP that they devote to public servants' wages.
自2007年以來，有21個國家仍未削減公務員薪酬，這其中包括塞浦路斯、意大利和法國。
Finding explanations for dearer public payslips is tricky.
要為日益高昂的政府工資單找理由，不是一件容易的事情。
One reason might be wage drift—the automatic increases in salaries that can occur as civil servants are granted annual promotions in seniority, simply for having been in their jobs for another year.
其中一個原因或許可以總結為工資浮動—這一機制確保了公務員薪酬隨著職位的逐年提升而增加，而職位的提升往往并不需要什么理由，僅僅在自己的崗位上又待了一年的公務員便可獲得提升。
In 2012, for example, more than 600,000 staff from Britain's National Health Service received rises averaging 3.5%, despite a pay freeze.
例如，除了一次薪金凍結之外，英國國家醫療衛生服務系統超過60萬名員工，在2012年得到了平均3.5%的薪金漲幅。
In 2010 Barack Obama also decided to freeze government pay, yet the median salary for federal employees climbed by over $3,000 during the following two years.
在2010年，美國總統奧巴馬雖然同樣地實施了薪金凍結，然而在其后的兩年內，公務員薪酬中位數則突破了3000美元的大關。
Wage drift could outweigh the effect of reduced headcount, which is likely to be concentrated in the lower echelons of the civil service.
工資浮動機制的影響，可能遠比裁減人員的作用更大，而這是由于政府的裁員計劃主要面向低層公務員。
Another possibility, suggests Alberto Alesina of Harvard University, is that governments simply failed to implement planned spending cuts.
哈佛大學的艾爾波托?艾萊斯那表示還有另一種可能：簡單地說，那就是政府沒有去執行早已制定好的開支削減計劃。
At the end of January Greece's highest administrative court ruled that pay reductions for the armed forces and emergency services were unconstitutional: the government now faces a heavy bill in back pay.
在一月底，希臘最高行政法院宣布，政府對軍隊以及應急服務部門的經費削減行為是違憲的：這意味著政府現在要面對的是堆積如山的欠薪賬單。
Portugal's constitutional court also opposed the scrapping of Christmas bonuses for civil servants on similar grounds.
同樣地，葡萄牙憲法法庭也反對其政府取消相關部門公務員圣誕節獎金的計劃。
These data are worrisome.
以上種種數據令人十分不安。
The implicit trade-off of austerity was pain now, prosperity later.
如今交由政府當局權衡的利弊是自己能否忍受開支削減的痛苦，以換取將來的經濟繁榮。
Yet as growth in advanced economies picks up, many civil services seem no more streamlined than before.
但隨著發達國家經濟增長復蘇，許多公共服務將愈發臃腫不堪。
