低收入就是窮人的工資水平

Low Wages Are Poverty Wages

低收入就是窮人的工資水平

How would you like to put in full-time hours at your job, work hard to perform your job well, manage your household, and yet still spend time waiting in lines for general assistance and charity to pay for your basic expenses, including food and heat? If you are a member of the growing population of minimum- and low-wage workers, this could be you. And the problem affects all of us.

你喜歡全職工作嗎，喜歡努力做好自己的工作嗎，喜歡處理家務嗎，還是喜歡排隊等待一般救助和等待慈善機構來爲你支付諸如食物和取暖之類的基本費用嗎？如果你是人數不斷增加的最低收入羣體中的一員，那麼這可能就是你的境況了。而且這一問題影響着所有人。

Low wages are not just for kids and teens anymore. They are for everybody. Steven Greenhouse wrote a piece for the Economy section of The New York Timesthat compared the demographics of low-wage workers in 1979 and 2013. The changes are shocking. The stereotype that low-wage workers are young, and are either just starting out or saving money for school is out of date and incorrect. In 2013, 20 percent of workers aged 25 to 34 earned low wages, up from 15 percent in 1979. In 2013, over 30 percent of workers ages 35 to 64 were making low wages.

低收入已經不再僅僅適用於兒童和青少年了。低收入是對每個人而言的。Steven Greenhouse 在紐約時報的經濟專欄中發表了一篇文章，文章對比了1979年和2013年低收入工作者的人口統計資料。變化驚人。認爲工作者收入低是因爲年輕、剛剛開始工作或者勤工儉學的傳統思想已經過時、不合實際了。2013年，年齡在25歲到34歲之間的低收入工作者比例高達20%，自從1979年增加了15個百分點。2013年，年齡在35至64歲之間的工作者，30%以上都處於低收入水平。

Education of the Low-Wage Worker

低收入工作者的受教育情況

Education has long been considered the doorway out of poverty. Get a good education, and more opportunities will be available to you, as will more money. Therefore, it may come as a surprise that, according to Greenhouse's article, about 41 percent of low-wage workers today have some college education. Many factors contribute to this state of affairs, not the least of which is the recent recession.

教育往往被看作是脫貧的出路。人們一般認爲只要受到良好的教育，就能得到更多的就業機會、更高的收入。根據Greenhouse的文章，當今41%左右的低收入工作者基本都受過大學教育，因此很是令人吃驚。導致這種情況的因素有很多，不僅僅是由於最近經濟不景氣這一個因素。

The point is that it is getting more and more difficult to stay above the poverty line. Available jobs offer low wages, people put off finishing their educations because they cannot afford it, and health crises take any savings the family was able to stash away. People are asking for assistance with basics such as feeding their children, paying rent, keeping warm through an incredibly cold winter, and transporting themselves to work. The low wages available today do not support the cost of basic living.

問題在於保持在貧困線以上的困難度越來越大。可獲得的工作崗位，工資很低，因此人們放棄完成學業，因爲他們沒錢支付學業需費用，健康危機耗盡了家庭的所有積蓄。人們現在需要基本的救助，比如供養兒童、交房租、寒冬取暖以及工作交通費等。現在獲得的低收入根本不能滿足基本生活消費需求。

Tell Us What You Think

告訴我們你的看法

Have you ever needed assistance in addition to your wages?

你是否曾需要工資以外的其他幫助呢？