美国小时工资战升温

    上周，喜剧演员史蒂芬•科尔伯特拿麦当劳（McDonald's）开刀，挑起了当前美国就业市场最尖锐的问题——钟点工与CEO薪资的两极分化。当前钟点工的时薪是8.25美元，CEO的年薪是875万美元（相当于时薪超过4,200美元）。

    此次争论的焦点是钟点工的最低工资。目前联邦的最低工资标准是在四年前制定的，数额为7.25美元，但有18个州以及华盛顿特区的最低工资标准都比这个数字要高。企业拒绝加薪，声称他们已经在微利经营，再加薪势必会压榨利润空间，届时如果不将成本转移到消费者身上，就得被迫关门歇业。

    科尔伯特用调侃的语气给麦当劳的员工提了个建议，让他们停止抱怨。他的建议是：“接受一个过得去的工资，尽量多偷吃点东西补回来”。

    这正是全国400万名快餐店员工多年来一直在做的事情。但是现在，他们当中已经有人开始反击了。成千上万名这样的员工正打算在本周开展罢工抗议。罢工活动将在纽约等超过七座城市开展，届时他们将暂时离开麦当劳等速食店的工作岗位，借此迫使雇主提高薪资。

    目前尚不清楚这场罢工最终到底是会为广大收银员、厨师、备餐员和外卖人员争取到更好的报酬，还是成为这场全国性对话中一个瞬间即逝的时刻。联邦政府意欲采取措施，提振中产阶级的就业前景，但这样做也会带来隐忧，那就是，增加开支从长远角度讲对国家不利。

    目前时薪战已经在华盛顿特区打响——不是在国会——而是当地政府就沃尔玛（Wal-Mart's）能否在这个国家的首都开店而展开的战斗。华盛顿特区议会近期通过了一项法案，规定大型零售商每小时必须至少支付其员工12.5美元的最低工资。对此，折扣零售商沃尔玛威胁称将取消建立三家连锁店的计划。

    华盛顿政府与沃尔玛之间的对峙反映了美国就业市场的一个重大变化，而就是这个变化重塑了美国的国家经济。具体说来，中薪的工作机会已经消失——尤其是在五年前的金融危机以后，取而代之的是日益增多的低薪钟点工岗位。这些岗位就算有福利，也少得可怜。

    非营利组织全国就业法律工程（National Employment Law Project，简称NELP）的执行董事克里斯汀•欧文斯一直观察着劳动力市场的动向。她说：“低薪的工作机会增多了，但是扣除物价上涨因素后，低薪族和中薪族的薪水都在下降。”

    欧文斯称，2009年到2010年，美国人的工资水平下降了2.8%，而且低薪一族的工资下降幅度最大，半数的低薪工种——厨师、备餐员、家庭护理员、私人护理员、女佣和管家——都丧失了5%的购买力。

    By skewering McDonald's over the gaping disparity between hourly worker pay and CEO compensation -- it's $8.25 per hour versus $8.75 million yearly (more than $4,200 per hour) -- comedian Stephen Colbert last week threw the spotlight on one of the most divisive issues in today's American working world.

    That debate is over the minimum wage paid to hourly workers. Currently, the federal minimum, set four years ago, is $7.25, but it is higher in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Businesses resist increases, complaining they operate on narrow margins and paying workers more will dig into their profits and lead them to raise prices or close their doors.

    Colbert's advice -- tongue-in-cheek -- to McDonald's (MCD) workers is to stop complaining and "accept a fair wage and all the grease you can breathe."

    And that's what most of the country's 4 million fast-food workers have done for years. But now, some are starting to push back. Thousands of such workers are planning a walkout this week, temporarily exiting their jobs at outlets like McDonald's in seven or more cities, including New York, to demand a bigger paycheck.

    It's unclear if this will prompt better pay for cashiers, cooks, prep staff, and delivery workers or end up as a fleeting moment in the national conversation. The White House wants to take measures to shore up middle class job prospects, but it is facing concerns that more spending will damage the country over the long term.

    The hourly wage battle is already underway in the District of Columbia -- not in Congress -- but in the local community over Wal-Mart's (WMT) entry into the nation's capital. When D.C.'s city council adopted a rule requiring big-box retailers to pay their workers a "living wage" of at least $12.50 per hour, the discount retailer threatened to stop construction on three stores it had planned to open.

    The standoff gets to the heart of the changes that have reshaped the national economy, where middle-wage jobs have disappeared, especially since the recession began five years ago, and have been increasingly replaced by lower-paid hourly jobs with few, if any, benefits.

    "Employers have been adding low-wage jobs, but inflation adjusted wages for lower-wage and middle-wage jobs are falling," says Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), which tracks workforce trends.

    The wage decline was 2.8% between 2009 and 2010, she says, and was largest at the lower end of the pay scale, where half of all low-paid occupations -- cooks, food preparation workers, home health aides, personal care aides, maids and housekeepers -- lost 5% of their buying power.

    "We have an increasingly productive work force," she says, "but while corporations are reaping the financial benefits from that, these gains are not being shared with the people actually doing the work."