Would you work for zero salary?

对“零月薪”说不！

IF a company asked you to work for half a year without pay, would you accept the job?

如果有公司要你免费工作半年，你接受这个工作么？

No? Well, quite a few of your peers are saying, "Yes."

不接受么？现实是：你身边的很多人都选择了接受。

According to a recent report by the Communist Youth League Beijing Committee and the Beijing Youth Stress Management Service Center, almost one out of five responding college graduates said they would accept zero-salary jobs for up to six months.

不久前，北京共青年团委员会和北京青年压力管理服务中心共同发布的一份报告显示，约1/5的受调查大学生愿意接受长达半年的零月薪工作。

Yao Lanjie, a college graduate who majored in psychology at a key university in Hubei, told interviewers from the recruitment website 333job.com that she would be fine if she wasn`t paid during her first three months on the job.

姚岚洁（音译），湖北某重点大学心理学专业毕业生，告诉纳杰人才网的面试官，即使前3个月没有工资也可以接受。

Graduates like Yao hope to show their employers that they are eager learners, and that they value the job more than the salary. But can taking a "zero-salary" job really give job-seekers an edge in the fiercely competitive job market? The answer from HR experts is: No.

像姚岚洁这样的毕业生希望此举能让面试官看到他们积极的学习态度，表明自己看重的是工作而非待遇。然而，零月薪真的能让求职者在竞争激烈的求职市场上占据优势么？人力资源专家给出的答案是：不会。

"To be honest, I will doubt a job seeker`s ability if he or she requires a very small salary during the job interview," said Chen Yao, marketing director at 333job.com and one of Yao`s interviewers. "Is the job seeker so incapable that he or she has to lower the salary requirement to find a job? This is my worry."

“坦白讲，如果求职者在面试过程中要求低薪，我会怀疑他/她的工作能力，”纳杰人才网的营销总监，姚岚洁的面试官之一陈耀（音译）说。 “我担心的是，应聘者的能力是不是很低，所以找工作时才降低工资要求。”

Chen said Yao actually didn`t need to sacrifice her salary in order to get a job. Chen was quite impressed by both her clear career planning and her excellent internship performance with the company. So he decided to take Yao in and pay her a probationary salary, even though she didn`t ask for anything.

陈耀表示，姚岚洁其实不必为就业而牺牲工资。她清晰的职业规划和在公司杰出的实习表现都让陈印象深刻。因此，陈决定给姚一个机会，并付给她试用期工资，虽然她并没有提出任何要求。

Do some research

前期调查很重要

Feng Lijuan, chief HR expert at 51job.com, agreed with Chen. She advised college graduates not to say things like, "I don`t mind whether the salary is big or small; I just care whether I can learn things in the company."

前程无忧招聘网首席职场专家冯利娟也同意陈耀的观点。她建议大学毕业生们不要说 “我不介意工资的多少，只看重是否能在公司中学到东西”等诸如此类的话。

"The companies employ you because you meet their needs and you can make contributions - not because they can help you improve yourself," said Feng.

“公司雇用你是因为你达到了他们的要求，可以为公司做出贡献--而不是因为他们能帮你提升自己，”冯利娟说。

She suggested that college graduates do some research on the salaries of people in their industry. They can do this either by browsing the Web or by talking with alumni who are working in their field. This will enable college graduates to suggest an appropriate salary requirement in the job interview.

此外，她还建议毕业生们做些调查，了解该行业的工资情况。网上查询或和在同领域工作的校友交流都能获知这些情况。这样一来，毕业生们就能在面试中提出合理的工资要求。

It`s against the law

零月薪违法

Here`s another reason to reject a zero-salary job offer: Working for no pay is against the law.

拒绝零月薪的原因还有一个：零月薪违背法律规定。

According to Liu Haobin, director of Beijing Uniontop Law Firm, companies can hire college interns for free before their graduation, but employers are forbidden to do so after students graduate.

北京市联拓律师事务所主任刘昊斌律师表示，公司可以让在校大学生免费实习，但学生一旦毕业就必须给予薪酬。

During their probationary working period, "employers must pay their employees no less than 80 percent of the monthly salary stated in the job contract, and no less than the local minimum salary standard," said Liu.

试用期间，“公司须付给对方不少于合同中规定的月工资的80％，且该金额不得低于当地最低工资标准，”刘昊斌律师说。

This hasn`t stopped some graduates from working for free, but most who have regret doing so. Zhang Min (pseudonym, as she asked to remain anonymous), a 25-year-old human resources major from a university in Chengdu, planned to accept no pay for some time before she started working for a Xinjiang-based news outlet.

然而，即便如此，仍不能阻止部分毕业生接受零月薪工作现象。但是，他们中的大多数人都为此后悔不已。25岁的张敏（笔名，被采访者要求匿名）是成都大学人力资源专业的毕业生。她打算在新疆的一家新闻媒体开始工作前，先免费工作一段时间。

But when she witnessed the stressful workloads after coming on board, she quickly changed her mind. She found out that some of her colleagues were only paid according to how much news they wrote. They were given no base salary, said Zhang.

真正入职后，见识了饱和的工作量，她的想法马上就改变了。她发现，一些同事的工资和发稿量直接相关。他们甚至没有基本工资，张敏说。

"It`s true that I have learned a lot from the challenging job, but now I think that if I cannot be guaranteed a stable salary, I will quit the job."

“这个极具挑战的工作确实让我获益匪浅。现在，如果没有稳定的工资，我肯定不接受这个工作。”