奧巴馬政府昨日宣佈了加班費新規
The Obama administration yesterday announced rules to ensure millions more workers are eligible for extra pay when they work overtime, handing a victory to unions.
奧巴馬政府昨日宣佈了新規，根據新規，又有數百萬勞動者符合了加班時可獲得加班費的條件。此舉向工會奉送了一場勝利。
The Department of Labor rules will extend overtime protection to 4.2m Americans who are not eligible under federal law, in a move that the White House predicts will boost wages by $1.2bn a year.
依照美國勞工部(Department of Labor)的新規，420萬根據聯邦法律不符合條件的美國人將獲得加班保護。美國白宮(White House)預測，此舉將讓美國勞動者的年工資收入增加12億美元。
The rule will double the salary threshold to $47,476 per year under which most salaried workers are guaranteed overtime when working more than 40 hours a week. That is below the $50,400 level announced in a proposal from the administration last summer, but well above the current level of $23,660 a year, which has been unchanged for more than a decade.
勞工部新規將符合條件的年工資上限提高了一倍，至47476美元；根據新規，大多數工薪勞動者都符合在工作時間超出每週40小時後可領取加班費的條件。這個標準低於奧巴馬政府在去年夏季的一份提議中宣佈的50400萬美元的水平，但遠遠高於當前的每年23660美元（當前標準已10年多沒有變過了）。
The new threshold, which takes effect on December 1 2016, will be updated every three years, the White House said. The move was welcomed by Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, who called it a “major victory for working people that will improve the lives of millions of families”.
白宮表示，定於2016年12月1日生效的新標準，將每三年更新一次。此舉受到勞聯-產聯(AFL-CIO)主席理查德•特拉姆卡(Richard Trumka)的歡迎。他稱之爲一場“勞動人民的重大勝利，將改善數百萬家庭生活質量”。
However, some employers’ groups have warned that the reforms could have negative side-effects. David French, senior lobbyist for the National Retail Federation, said on the group’s website that the rules would block upward career mobility, hit businesses with administrative costs and fail to generate an increase in take-home earnings, with employers limiting hours or cutting base pay.
然而，一些僱主團體警告稱，這項改革可能產生副作用。美國零售聯合會(National Retail Federation)的資深遊說人士大衛•弗倫奇(David French)在該團體的網站上表示，新規將切斷員工向上發展的通道，增加企業的管理成本，並且考慮到僱主可以限制員工的工作時長或削減基礎薪資，員工的實際收入將不會增加。
President Barack Obama in 2014 signed a memorandum instructing the Department of Labor to modernise the country’s overtime rules. Overtime eligibility has eroded over time because of changes in the law and the failure of the threshold to keep pace with inflation.
2014年，美國總統巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)簽署了一份備忘錄，指示勞工部更新美國關於勞動者加班的規定。由於法律變化，加上年工資標準未跟上通脹的步伐，符合加班費獲得條件的人數隨着時間推移越來越少。
The share of full-time workers qualifying for overtime based on their salaries has slid steadily from 62 per cent in 1975 to 7 per cent today. Unions have argued the current threshold is below the poverty line for a family of four.
工資水平符合加班費獲得條件的全職勞動者的比例，已從1975年的62%持續下降到如今的7%。工會一直在說，當前的年工資標準低於四口之家的貧困線水平。
The overtime reform comes amid widespread frustration in the US population over subdued income growth in recent years. There have been tentative signs of rising wages in recent months, but average hourly earnings growth still remains well below the year-on-year rates of close to 3.5 per cent seen at the tail-end of the last decade.
美國推進加班費改革之際，美國民衆普遍對近年來收入增長低迷感到沮喪。有初步跡象表明，近幾個月工資水平正在上升，但平均時薪的增速仍遠遠低於上一個十年末期接近3.5%的同比增速。
Low-wage workers have been benefiting from increases in state and local minimum wages in some areas, as well as decisions by some big corporations to lift entry-level pay. However, efforts by Mr Obama to boost the federal minimum wage have faltered in Congress, leaving overtime one of the key methods available to him to lift earnings
在某些地區，低薪勞動者一直受益於州與當地最低工資水平的上升；一些大公司提高入門級崗位工資的決定也一直讓低薪勞動者受益。然而，奧巴馬提高聯邦最低工資水平的努力在國會受挫，使得加班費成爲他能借以提高勞動者收入的關鍵方法之一。
The Department of Labor said employers could respond to the new rules by either paying time-and-a-half for overtime, raising workers’ salaries above the new threshold, or limiting their hours to 40 a week.
勞工部表示，僱主可以用三種方式應對新規：支付1.5倍的加班費，把員工工資提高到新標準之上或者把員工每週工作時長限制在40個小時以內。
Ross Eisenbrey, vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank, said: “The new salary threshold will provide millions of workers with higher wages or more time with their families. It will also give hourly and part-time workers the opportunity to pick up work that might have otherwise been done during overtime by their full-time, salaried colleagues.”
立場偏左的智庫經濟政策研究所(Economic Policy Institute)的副所長羅斯•艾森布里(Ross Eisenbrey)說：“新的工資標準將讓數百萬工人獲得更高的收入，或者有更多時間跟家人相處。這也將讓小時工和兼職工有機會獲得更多工作，這些工作原本可能是全職的工薪勞動者在加班時做的。”
