美国工资条的秘密

    ADP正在吸引多方大量关注。ADP是一家全球知名的人力资源和HR业务流程外包解决方案提供商，管理着美国16%的私企员工的工资单。由于目前媒体对就业率的关注，这家公司每个月出具的就业报告都会引起市场的反应。奥巴马政府推出的《平价医保法》以其严格的规定终于迫使雇主们开始认真统计自己到底雇佣了多少员工，或者说需要雇佣多少全职和兼职员工。在眼下这个历史性的金融震荡时期，美国硕果仅存的四家3A评级公司【ADP、埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）、强生（Johnson & Johnson）、微软（Microsoft）】面临着更紧张的压力。ADP财务总监詹•西格蒙德近日与《财富》杂志的吉奥夫•科尔文谈到了低薪工作的兴起，做一家3A评级的企业是否值得，如何从大量数据中获得价值，以及其它多个话题。下面是采访实录节选：

    问：就业是个非常热门的话题，而你有一个独一无二的渠道，可以获得60万美国雇主的数据。通过这些数据，你对美国的就业情况有何感想？

    答：很不幸，从过去三到四个月来看，我们发现美国的就业增速正在放缓。我们相信税率的调整产生了一些影响。医疗改革的介入可能会影响招聘决策，再度征收工资税可能也会影响招聘决策。

    问：你的客户里有很多都是小企业主，他们可能还没有充分准备好应对《平价医保法》。据你了解，他们有哪些担心？

    答：员工人数少于50人的企业完全没必要担心，因为这项法案并不要求他们缴纳医保。不过我们偶有发现，有些正好招聘了50人左右的企业的确有一些担忧。在招聘人数上也能看出这一点——规模在30至50人之间的企业招聘增幅明显放缓了。我们不会公布数据，但我们认为这可能是一种趋势。

    我们还针对《平价医保法》为客户开了培训会，结果这几次培训会的参会人数是我们公司有史以来最多的。即将出台的政府规定将使新的薪酬系统由于其特殊性而载入史册，所以我们变成人们讨论的焦点也是自然的事情。

    问：我发现很多小企业主并没有意识到，今年他们的招聘水平会决定他们明年会不会被纳入《平价医保法》的范畴，所以他们今年招聘多少人，工作多少小时，将是十分重要的。

    答：非常正确。政府是怎样统计兼职工人的？这个问题比人们想象的要复杂。包括缴纳医保、资格复审、工资水平认证、W2表格（全职工作者的报税表）、特殊事项、罚金缴纳等各种事项都有填报要求。它意味着大量烦琐的工作，而我们正是要在这个领域提供最好的服务。

    Diverse forces are focusing unusual attention on ADP (ADP,Fortune 500), the company that administers corporate payrolls covering 16% of all private sector workers in the U.S. With jobs in the news, the company's monthly employment report moves markets. The Affordable Care Act makes employers aware of exactly how many full-time and part-time workers they have -- or want -- under the law's complex definitions. The historic financial uncertainty creates especially interesting tension for the four companies (ADP, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft) that still hold triple-A credit ratings. ADP's CFO, Jan Siegmund, talked recently with Fortune's Geoff Colvin about the rise in low-paying jobs, whether being triple-A is still worthwhile, getting value from endless data, and much else. Edited excerpts:

    Q: Jobs are a very hot topic, and you have exclusive access to a trove of data from 600,000 employers. What's it telling you about the state of employment in the U.S.?

    A: Unfortunately, for the last three to four months we've seen a slowing of employment growth. We believe the tax-rate changes had an impact. Anticipation of health care reform may impact hiring decisions, and the reemergence of payroll taxes may also.

    Many of your clients are small employers who are not well prepared to deal with the Affordable Care Act. What concerns are you hearing from them?

    Employers with fewer than 50 employees don't have to fear anything because they're not required to offer health care coverage. What we see anecdotally is that companies right at the edge of 50 do have concerns. We see it also in the hiring numbers -- hiring was particularly slow in the segment of 30 to 50 employees. We don't publish the data, but we feel there may be a trend.

    The training sessions we offer our clients around the Affordable Care Act are the highest attended ever in the history of anything we've offered. The government regulations that are coming out make the payroll system the system of record, so it's a natural thing for us to be in the center of the discussion.

    I've noticed that many small employers don't realize that their employment levels this year will establish whether they're subject to the Affordable Care Act next year, so how many people they're employing for how many hours right now will be critically important.

    Exactly right. How do you calculate part-time workers? It's more complicated than one thinks. Then if you think about reporting requirements to the health care exchanges, eligibility confirmation, wage-level verification, W-2s to include premium valuations in your annual reporting, special notices, penalty submissions, and so forth -- it's an endless list of very mundane things that have to be done where we hope we can offer best services.