1--Hey, Susan. Have you got a sec? I have some questions about my paycheck.
 
2--You bet, Emily. Pull up a chair.
 
1--Well, this is my first paycheck here in the States and there are a few things I don't understand. First of all, what is this FICA, and SUI Y tax, and why are there deductions both for Medicare and for my health insurance plan?
 
2--OK, let's start from the top of your pay stub. This number here represents your gross pay.
 
1--Yes, that's easy enough to understand.
 
2--Then here we have a series of deductions. First off are the federal ones. FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contribution Act, or something like that. It's your federal income tax. And then there's Social Security and Medicare, which are both federal programs to help you out after you retire or if you were unable to work.
 
1--All right, I see. So the Medicare isn't actually a health insurance I can use now.
 
2--That's right. Below the federal deductions are the state deductions. There's the state income tax, and then this SUI/SDI tax you were asking about is paying into an unemployment and disability fund that our state has set up, but you can see it's a pretty small quantity that they take.
 
1--Yeah, I don't mind giving them a dollar fifty for that. So there are two separate income taxes—one at a state level and one at a federal level?
 
2--That's right. Not all states have an income tax. Some use higher property taxes or sales taxes instead.
 
1--I see. All right, well I think everything else I can figure out on my own. The deductions for health insurance and my 401(K) are pretty self-explanatory. Thanks for your help, Susan.
 
2--No problem! All those deductions do add up, and nobody's net pay is as high as they'd like. I can understand why you'd want some explanation.
 
1--Yeah, I guess it's the same in the UK, I just never paid much attention. See you later!
 
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注解：
 
1.paycheck薪水
2.insurance保險
3.unemployment失業(yè)
 
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譯文：
 
1--嘿，蘇珊。能耽誤你一點時間嗎？我想問你關于我薪水的問題。
2--你肯定嗎，艾米麗，拿個椅子過來坐下說吧。
1--嗯，這是我在美國第一次領薪水，有些地方我不是很懂。首先，這個FICA和SUI Y稅是什么。還有，為什么我的醫(yī)療和健康保險計劃中都有扣除的部分呢？
2--好的，讓我們從你的工資條最開始看起，這里的數(shù)字代表你的工資總額。
1--是的，這個很容易理解。
2--這個部分我們有一系列的扣除部分。首先在所有的聯(lián)邦的項目中，F(xiàn)ICA代表美國社會保險捐款法以及相關的。這是你聯(lián)邦收入稅。然后是社會保險和醫(yī)療保險，它們都是在你退休或者你無法工作的時候幫助你的聯(lián)邦項目。
1--好的，我明白了。所以說，醫(yī)療保險事實是我現(xiàn)在不能用的健康保險。
2--對了。在聯(lián)邦扣除項下面是政府的扣除。包括政府收入稅，還有你在問的SUI/SDI稅，這些都是被征收到政府建立的失業(yè)和殘疾基金里面的。你可以看到這部分只占很小的比例。
1--是的，我不介意拿出1.5美元給政府。所以說，有兩類收入稅——一個是政府層面的，還有一個是聯(lián)邦層面的，對嗎？
2--說對了。不是所有的政府都有收入稅。有的是用高收入稅或者營業(yè)稅代替的。
1--我知道了。好吧，我想其它的我都可以自己弄明白了。對于我的保險和401(K)也差不多清楚了。謝謝你的幫助，蘇珊。
2--沒有問題。所有的扣除加在一起，每個人的凈薪金都沒有他們想象中的要么高。我能理解為什么你想弄明白。
1--是的，我想在英國也一樣，我只是沒有注意，再見！