數十年來，出書社、時尚雜誌、咨詢公司、提倡集團、片子制造公司和掮客公司的老板們經由過程讓助理們低人為長期的事情，把他們造就成下一代大人物。
咱們可以稱它為《穿普拉達的女魔頭》(Devil Wears Prada)經濟。這本小說以《Vogue》歷久主編安娜·溫圖爾(Anna Wintour)為創作原型。
然則如今，奧巴馬當局在推進給大部門年薪47476美元如下的工薪族付出1.5倍的加班費，以是這類貿易模式忽然受到進擊。對付依附雄心壯誌的年青人樂意就義待遇和自負，以調換將來獲得面子職位的公司來講，這項變更不但是經濟挑釁。
有些人擔當了大正午去買咖啡、深夜收到事情郵件的磨練。在他們眼裏，當局的加班劃定代表著一種文化變遷的開端，但它不必定受人迎接。
“你願望在晚上8點撞見老板，”沃克曼出書公司(Workman Publishing)的首席履行官丹·雷諾茲(Dan Reynolds)說。該公司出書過《海蒂有身大百科》(What to Expect When You’re Expecting)和桑德拉·博因頓(Sandra Boynton)的許多童書。
“我感興致的是這會若何影響它，”雷諾茲說，“它更多的是一種文化。”
這項新規的支撐者們以為它有許多好處，稱它將停止過分冒死事情的文化氣氛，大概還能讓白人和有錢人主導的精英圈子變很多樣化，由於如今的社會過於依附人脈，假如沒有充裕的怙恃，就只能掙到可憐的薪水。
這項律例將於本年12月1日見效。不外，它大概會讓許多已身居要職的人覺得莫衷一是。
客歲炎天，美國勞工部(Labor Department)提出此項加班律例後，沃克曼出書公司的總司理吉爾·薩拉伊(Jill Salayi)給勞工部寫了封信，稱該公司無力蒙受給全部新來的員工付出加班費或將他們的人為進步到新門坎，以是在許多情形下，該公司將不能不收縮他們的事情時光。
“對他們的請求將變少，”她說明說，“那象征著他們的奇跡得不到充足成長，他們也沒法合時得到提高或晉升。”
(雷諾茲誇大說，沃克曼有信念從財政上舉行調劑。)
有些受人矚目標非紅利構造表達了相似的掛念。從意識形態角度講，美國大眾好處研討構造(United States Public Interest Research Group)和法律視察構造(Judicial Watch)險些沒有配合的地方：前者的主旨是襲擊損害花費者和情況的公司;後者是守舊派活動聽士在20世紀90年月創建的，主如果為了揭穿克林頓當局的腐爛行動。但這兩個構造在給勞工部的信中都表現，新的加班律例將妨害他們完成造就年青幻想主義者的任務。
“咱們舉行查詢拜訪時，會派他們去克林頓藏書樓查材料，”法律視察的人力資本主管蘇珊·普拉瑟克(Susan Prytherch)在提起先級人員時說，“今後派他們去以前，咱們大概會有分歧的斟酌。”
片子、電視和數字媒體編劇的代表機構——美國東部編劇協會(Writers Guild of America, East)的履行主管洛厄爾·彼得森(Lowell Peterson)稱，這類模式在好萊塢也仍然風行。
他說，“擔負編劇的助理每每是年青人進入這個以編劇為生的行業的門路。”
GMMB的履行合股人雷琳·奧爾森(Raelynn Olson)表現，在政治界也是如斯。該公司引導的團隊曾為巴拉克·奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的兩次總統競選制造告白。“咱們公司的許多高管都是從這裏的低級職位開啟本身的奇跡，包含咱們的一些合股人，”奧爾森說。
然則，題目在於，在盡力完成一項事情的同時展示本身具備完成更大義務的才能就須要事情很長期。
博雅公關(Burson-Marsteller)的華盛頓分公司為各類貿易和政治客戶處置大眾幹系、做民意考試。該公司所謂的合股人的年薪平日在4萬至5萬美元，每周的事情時光一樣平常遠遠跨越40個小時。有些人還要在平常事情以外介入24小時監督媒體對客戶的報導，這大概會讓他們加班至深夜。
依照聯邦當局以前的加班律例——它主動實用於大部門年薪少於23660美元的工薪族——加班時光根本上不予盤算，以是這些年青合股人是相對於廉價的人力本錢(年薪高於這個尺度的員工依照一個主觀很多的“職責”測試，有資歷申請加班費，但這筆錢是每每拿不得手的)。依照新律例，許多如許的員工假如每周事情跨越40個小時，將得到1.5倍的加班費——假如他們的薪水仍然穩定的話。
該公司的一名談話人凱瑟琳·沙利文(Catherine Sullivan)稱：“博雅一向給相符前提的員工付出加班費，今後也將持續付出。”她指出，比合股人級別更低的員工今朝有加班費，也介入24小時監督事情。
一些本來已賜與年青員工較高待遇的公司表現，他們極可能會把員工待遇晉升至跨越新尺度。
然則那種方法大概不太合適小公司，由於小公司的員工人為在總本錢中占的比例較高。威立版權署理公司(Wylie Agency)的一名前雇員稱，該公司的助理版權署理人的年薪在3萬美元上下，平日每周事情50至60個小時，沒有加班費。該公司的紐約分分公司平日有8至10位版權署理人。
威立公司的這位前雇員因為畏懼受到抨擊，以是請求匿名。這人稱，眾人都認為公司盼望員工長期事情，以是上午9點以後上班或下晝6點半以前放工的員工平日認為有需要給全部辦公室的同事發郵件，說明離崗緣故原由。
這家公司的老板安德魯·威立(Andrew Wylie)說，假如是他本身請求低級員工加班，他會斟酌付出1.5倍的加班費，但若是他們誌願加班，他不會給加班費。“你要我怎樣辦?拿著秒表坐在門口?”他說，“我不會那樣做。”
曾介入《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)和《嫡親血統》(Bloodline)等電視劇的資深電視制片人大衛·曼森(David Manson)說，有些低級事情有沒有數人盼望獲得，以是這項新的加班律例不大大概影響薪水或事情時光，最少在小公司是如許。
勞倫·魏絲伯格(Lauren Weisberger)的《穿普拉達的女魔頭》是依據她1999年至2000年在《Vogue》擔負溫圖爾助理的閱歷創作的。這本小說2006年被改編成片子，由梅麗爾·斯特裏普(Meryl Streep)和安妮·海瑟薇(Anne Hathaway)主演。魏絲伯格說，她在那邊常常是從早7點事情到晚7點，假如定時薪盤算，她的薪水險些確定低於最低人為。
她從沒想過申請加班費。她的薪水來自該雜誌的出書公司康泰納仕團體(Condé Nast)。“我確定不會跟安娜談加班費;要談也得是跟人力資本部的人談，”魏絲伯格說。她的新書將於本年7月出書。“我想如許的對話很少見吧。”
【參考譯文】
For decades, bosses at publishing houses, glossy magazines, consulting firms, advocacy groups, movie production companies and talent agencies have groomed their assistants to be the next generation of big shots by working them long hours for low wages.
Call it the “Devil Wears Prada” economy, after the novel depicting life working for a fictionalized Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor.
But now, with the Obama administration moving to require time-and-a-half overtime pay for most salaried employees making less than $47,476 a year, that business model is suddenly under assault. The change presents more than an economic challenge for the companies that rely on the willingness of young, ambitious workers to trade pay and self-respect for a shot at a prestige job down the road.
In the eyes of those who have survived the gantlet of midday coffee runs and late-night emails, the administration’s overtime regulation represents nothing less than the beginnings of a cultural shift, and not necessarily a welcome one.
“You want to bump into the boss at 8 o’clock at night,” said Dan Reynolds, chief executive of Workman Publishing, the publisher of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and many of Sandra Boynton’s children’s books.
“I’m interested in how this will affect that,” Mr. Reynolds said. “It’s more of a cultural thing than anything else.”
Supporters of the new rule see many benefits, saying it will rein in an overly workaholic atmosphere and perhaps diversify a rarefied world that tends to be white and upscale, thanks to its reliance on social connections and the difficulty of working for scraps without affluent parents.
Still, the coming change, which will take effect on Dec. 1, promises to be disorienting for many in these prestige professions.
In a letter to the Labor Department after it proposed the overtime rule last summer, Workman’s general manager, Jill Salayi, suggested that because the company could not afford to pay overtime to all newly eligible staff members or raise their salaries over the new threshold, it would have to cut back their hours in many cases.
“Less will be asked of them,” she argued, “which means they will not receive sufficient career development or see timely advancement and/or promotions.”
(Mr. Reynolds stressed that Workman was confident it would be able to adjust financially.)
Some high-profile nonprofits have raised similar concerns. Ideologically, the United States Public Interest Research Group, founded to fight companies that harm consumers and the environment, and Judicial Watch, which conservative activists created in the 1990s, largely to uncover Clinton administration corruption, have little in common. But both groups, in letters to the Labor Department, argued that the new overtime rule would hamper the mission of training young idealists.
“We would send them to the Clinton library if we’re doing an investigation,” Susan Prytherch, who oversees human resources for Judicial Watch, said of junior staff members. “We may think differently before sending them off.”
According to Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, which represents writers in movies, television and digital media, the model is very much alive and well in Hollywood as well.
“Being a writer’s assistant is often the way people get into the business of writing for a living” for television, he said.
The same goes for politics, according to Raelynn Olson, the managing partner of GMMB, which led the team that produced ads for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “Many of the firm’s senior leaders began their careers in entry-level positions here, including a number of our partners,” Ms. Olson said.
But the problem with trying to perform one job while simultaneously demonstrating aptitude for a bigger one is that it can require extremely long hours.
At the Washington offices of Burson-Marsteller, which handles public relations and polling for a variety of corporate and political clients, so-called associates typically make $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and often work well beyond 40 hours a week. Some are tasked with pitching in on 24-hour-a-day monitoring of media coverage for clients in addition to their usual work, which can keep them up late into the night.
Under the previous federal overtime rule, which applied automatically to most salaried employees making less than $23,660, those additional hours were essentially uncounted, making the young associates a relative bargain. (Employees making more than this can be eligible for overtime under a much more subjective “duties” test, but often don’t receive it.) Under the new rule, many of these staff members are to be paid time-and-a-half overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week, if their salary remains unchanged.
Catherine Sullivan, a company spokeswoman, said: “Burson-Marsteller has always paid, and will continue to pay, overtime to those who are eligible.” She noted that employees below the associate level currently do receive overtime pay and also participate in round-the-clock monitoring.
Some organizations in which young staff members are already relatively well compensated said they would probably raise salaries over the new threshold.
But the economics of that approach may be less practical at smaller companies where labor represents a larger share of overall costs. A former employee of the Wylie Agency said assistant literary agents there — usually eight to 10 in the New York office — typically earned in the $30,000s and routinely worked 50 to 60 hours a week without overtime pay.
The former Wylie employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, said that there was such an expectation of long hours that anyone arriving after 9 a.m. or leaving before 6:30 p.m. generally felt compelled to email the entire office, giving a reason for being AWOL.
Andrew Wylie, who runs the agency, said he would consider paying time and a half if he asked junior staff members to work overtime, but not if they worked long hours of their own volition. “What am I supposed to do, sit at the door with a stopwatch?” he said. “I’m not going to do that.”
David Manson, a longtime television producer who has worked on such shows as “House of Cards” and “Bloodline,” said that some entry-level jobs were so widely sought after that the new overtime rule was unlikely to affect either pay or hours, at least at smaller companies.
Lauren Weisberger, the author of “The Devil Wears Prada,” based her book — which inspired a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway — on her tour as Ms. Wintour’s assistant at Vogue in 1999 and 2000. She said that working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. was typical and that her salary almost certainly put her below minimum wage on an hourly basis.
It never occurred to her to put in for overtime pay, which Condé Nast, the magazine’s publisher, provides. “I certainly would not have had that conversation with Anna; I would have had to have it with H.R.,” said Ms. Weisberger, whose latest book will be out in July. “I don’t imagine that conversation took place a whole lot.”
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