PBS高端访谈:快餐店员工抗议低工资,要求加薪

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: As bad as circumstances are for people who can't find a job, there is a different, buttangible challenge for Americans who have work, but earn barely enough to get by.

　　For them, as "NewsHour" correspondent Kwame Holman reports, there is a battle playing out across the country to win a guarantee of higher pay.

　　(SINGING)

　　KWAME HOLMAN: McDonald's employees gathered in the nation's capital on Thursday, including workers from the franchise¹ inside the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, who struck a seasonal² note as they proclaimed they're tired of having to scrape by.

　　SHEMETHIA BUTLER, Protester: You know, I don't want to have to do that. I don't want the governmentall in my business. You know, they shouldn't -- you shouldn't have to resort to the government assistance to live and take care of your children if you're eligible³ and able to work. You should be able to get paid for what you do.

　　MELISSA ROSEBORO, Protester: My grandkids, no, I can't never say, well, when they ask me, nana, canwe go to the store or to the park or any place like that, I -- you know, I can take them to the park. But, as far as like having money to spend, I don't have it. I don't have it. I got paid yesterday and I'm broke already.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: Over the past year, a small, but growing chorus of fast-food workers have pushed to raise their wages from an average of about $9 an hour to what's called a living wage, $15 an hour.

　　Yesterday's strikes, planned for 100 cities, were organized by the Service Employees International Union and a New York group pushing for higher wages, Fast Food Forward. Fast Food Forward also funded a recent study by the University of California at Berkeley. It found 52 percent of fast-food workers depend on public programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, to get by, at a cost of nearly $7 billion a year to taxpayers⁴.

　　That compares to 25 percent of the overall work force who depend on such programs. As workers from Wendy's to Wal-Mart call for a living wage...

　　PROTESTERS: Hold the burgers. Hold the fries. We can't survive on $7.25.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: ... others are calling on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage, now $7.25 an hour and last raised in 2009.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you work hard, you should make a decent living.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: That includes President Obama, who spoke⁵ Wednesday about inequality at the left-leaningCenter for American Progress.

　　PRESIDENT OBAMA: We all know the arguments that have been used against a higher minimum wage. Some say it actually hurts low-wage workers; business will be less likely to hire them. There's no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs, and research shows it raises incomes for low-wage workers and boosts short-term economic growth.

　　(APPLAUSE)

　　KWAME HOLMAN: Not everyone buys those arguments. In downtown Washington's Freedom Plaza⁶, where skateboarders took advantage of unseasonal warmth this week, the head of the Conservative American Action Forum⁷ and former Congressional Budget Office chair, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, took issue.

　　DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, President, American Action Forum: I think the president's argument is incomplete at best. Certainly, the person who has the job, their wages are higher, they're better off. Butthere is evidence that it's harming the pace of economic recovery. Hiring gets slowed down. In the end, everyone might find a job, but you're getting rid of the jobs that low-skilled workers use, and that's a problem.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: A new analysis from the conservative Employment Policies Institute makes a similar caseagainst the living wage. It finds that a $15-an-hour wage would lead to more automation and cost nearly half-a-million low-wage jobs in the end. Some businesses also have said increased costs from higher wages would be passed on to consumers.

　　Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff at the AFL-CIO, says the evidence doesn't back that up.

　　THEA LEE, Deputy Chief of Staff, AFL-CIO: There's actually been a lot of great new economic research that looks not at the theory of raising the minimum wage, but at the facts. And a lot of what it'sdone is taken two states that are side by side, one of which has raised the minimum wage, the other which hasn't, and they have not found any negative employment effect.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: Even before the latest calls to raise the national wage, there was action in a number of states and localities. This week, Washington, D.C.'s City Council unanimously approved an $11.50 minimum wage, which would be one of the highest in the nation. It joins two neighboring counties in Maryland and five other states acting⁸ this year. Four more states take up wage bills next year.

　　THEA LEE: At some point, people are working full-time⁹, they're working harder than ever, and they're sick of it. They want to be able to work hard and get the American dream and be able to feed their families. And that's a reasonable thing in a wealthy country like the United States.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: Conservative economist¹⁰ Holtz-Eakin sees that frustration¹¹, but says the solution is moreeducation and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, not burdening companies.

　　DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN:The dividing lines between poverty are nonpoverty are work. If you're not -- ifyou're working, you're less likely to be in poverty. And the dividing line between low-wage work and high-wage work is skills and education. That's the number one thing they can do.

　　KWAME HOLMAN: Both Holtz-Eakin and Lee point out that today's low-wage work force is both older and better educated than it was a few decades ago, a fact they attribute to the poor job market.

1 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

2 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

3 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

4 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

7 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

10 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

11 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。