Knowing that you are paid less than your peers has two effects on happiness.

游客2024-02-05  13

问题     Knowing that you are paid less than your peers has two effects on happiness. One is negative: a thinner pay packet hurts self-esteem (自尊). The other is called the "tunnel" effect: the income gap is seen as improving your own chances of similar riches.
    A paper co-authored by Felix FitzRoy of the University of St. Andrews separates the two effects using data from household surveys in Germany. Previous work showed that the income of others can have a small, or even positive, overall effect on employees’ satisfaction in individual firms in Denmark or in very dynamic economies, such as Eastern Europe. But Mr. FitzRoy’s team proposed that older workers, who largely know their lifetime incomes already, will enjoy a much smaller tunnel effect. The negative effect on reported levels of happiness of being paid less than your peers is not visible for people aged under 45. In western Germany, seeing peers’ incomes rising actually makes young people happier.It is only those people over 45, when careers have "reached a stable position" , whose happiness is harmed by the success of others.
    The prospect of more than 20 years of hard work might make retirement seem more attractive. Those with jobs are no happier after they retire, however, perhaps because their lives already agree with social expectations. Unemployment is known to damage happiness because not working falls short of social expectations. Pensions or increased leisure time can not make up for the loss of social acceptance. Unemployed people are dissatisfied with their life not only because they have lower incomes, but also because they may get low and negative recognition from others.
    Indeed, retiring early from work can have side-effects. Another paper, co-authored by Andreas Kuhn of the University of Zurich, investigates the effect of a change in Austrian employment-insurance rules that allow blue-collar workers earlier retirement in some regions than others. Men retiring a year early lower their chance of surviving to age 67 by 13% . Almost a third of this higher death rate seemed to be concentrated among those who were forced into early retirement by job loss. The death was caused by smoking and alcohol consumption. If you’re in a job, even when you are paid less, hang on in there. [br] According to Andreas Kuhn’s investigation, which of the following is a negative effect of early retirement?

选项 A、People compelled into early retirement tend to smoke and drink.
B、Blue collars in Austria are willing to withdraw from their work.
C、Retiring early increases the possibility of living over 67.
D、People should hold on to their jobs even being paid less.

答案 A

解析 本题考查依据安德烈亚斯.库恩的调查,提早退休的负面影响。原文第四段第四句和第五句提到,大约三分之一的这种较高死亡率集中在那些因为失业而被迫提早退休的人们当中。吸烟和酗酒是导致死亡的因素。由此可知,提早退休的负面影响是被迫提早退休的人倾向于吸烟、喝酒,故答案为A。B“奥地利的蓝领愿意退出工作”是对原文第四段第二句的曲解,原文只提到奥地利的就业保障法允许某些地区的蓝领工人提早退休,并未提到工人愿不愿意提早退休;而且从该段第四句可知,部分员工是因为裁员被迫提早退休,而非自愿退休,故排除;C“提早退休使人们更有可能活到67岁以上”与第四段第三句矛盾,该句指出,提前一年退休的男性存活到67岁的几率降低了13%。选项中的increases the possibility of“增加……的可能性”与原文中的lower their chance of“降低……的可能性”相矛盾,故排除;D“即使薪水低,人们也应该坚持工作”是对第四段末句的同义转述,但并非提早退休的负面影响,而是因为其负面影响,作者提出的建议,故排除。
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