来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月9日
People from low-income households spend at least 6 additional hours per year waiting for government services, childcare and healthcare than people from wealthier households in the US.
在美国，低收入家庭的人每年等待政府服务、儿童保育和医疗服务的时间比富裕家庭的人至少多6个小时。
Stephen Holt at the University at Albany in New York decided to investigate how waiting times vary for different people after his wife experienced an unexpectedly long wait at the optometrist. He drew on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, in which participants record a 24-hour time diary of activities like working and studying.
纽约奥尔巴尼大学的斯蒂芬·霍尔特决定调查不同人群的等待时间是如何变化的，因为他的妻子在验光师那里经历了出乎意料的漫长等待。他借鉴了美国劳工统计局的美国时间使用调查的数据，在该调查中，参与者记录了工作和学习等活动的24小时日记。
Holt and his colleague Katie Vinopal found that people in households making less than $20,000 a year spend an average of 12 additional minutes waiting on each day that waiting occurs compared with those in households earning more than $150,000. Around a quarter of people in the US live in households in the lower-income group and 8 per cent in the higher-income group. For medical care, people in the lower-income bracket waited 18 more minutes on average than those in the higher-income group.
霍尔特和他的同事凯蒂·维诺帕尔发现，与年收入超过15万美元的家庭相比，年收入低于2万美元的家庭平均每天要多花12分钟等待。在美国，约四分之一的人生活在低收入群体，8%的人生活在高收入群体。在医疗方面，低收入阶层比高收入阶层平均多等待18分钟。
The researchers estimate that all this additional waiting costs the US economy between $3.6 billion and $9.3 billion in lost productivity each year. “This is 6 hours a year not of waiting, but of additional waiting, just because you’re low income,” says Holt.
研究人员估计，所有这些额外的等待每年给美国经济造成36亿至93亿美元的生产力损失。霍尔特说：“这不是每年6个小时的等待，而是额外的等待，仅仅因为你的收入低。”
“The experience of waiting longer for things than other people around you… triggers a very pointed sense of unfairness,” says Elizabeth Cohen at Syracuse University in New York. One reason for longer wait times, she says, is that low-income people often rely on government programs that involve slow and burdensome processes.
纽约雪城大学的伊丽莎白•科恩表示：“比周围的人等得更久的经历……会引发一种非常明显的不公平感。”她说，等待时间较长的一个原因是低收入人群往往依赖政府项目，这些项目涉及缓慢而繁重的程序。
Waiting can be more than just frustrating. Delays in accessing medical care, which can occur when there aren’t enough staff to meet demand, can lead to worse health outcomes. Long lines in grocery stores may prompt people to take less frequent trips and purchase more shelf-stable, processed foods.
等待不仅仅是令人沮丧。当没有足够的工作人员满足需求时，可能会出现医疗服务的延误，这可能导致更糟糕的健康结果。在杂货店排长队可能会促使人们减少出门次数，购买更耐储藏的加工食品。
There is no single solution to reducing wait times, says Holt, but having more flexible resources that accommodate different work schedules could help. He also suggests increasing access to government-provided healthcare like Medicaid and boosting investment in neighbourhood resources, which could further close the time-inequity gap.
霍尔特说，减少等待时间没有单一的解决方案，但拥有更灵活的资源来适应不同的工作时间表可能会有所帮助。他还建议增加政府提供的医疗保健，如Medicaid，并增加对社区资源的投资，这可能进一步缩小时间不平等的差距。