智庫建議蘋果巨額現金當工資
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????由美國前勞工部長羅伯特?里奇等人創建的開明智庫經濟政策研究所（Economic Policy Institute）本周三在自己的網站上刊登了一篇評論，開篇第一段就扼要地論述了這樣做的目的所在： ????“一年多來，圍繞蘋果（Apple）應該如何處置其龐大的現金儲備（如今已高達1,370億美元）展開的熱烈討論引人矚目。奇怪的是，種種提議幾乎都是一邊倒地探討如何用這些現金回饋股東。討論幾乎從未涉及這些現金是否也應該用于為海外制造蘋果產品的工人和在美國銷售蘋果產品的員工提供更加公平合理的薪酬。它只是大范圍失衡趨勢的一個縮影：給予員工的經濟回報比例正在下降。” ????這個提議可不是很多蘋果投資者希望聽到的，特別是眼下，蘋果股價已經從去年9月的高點下跌超過了36%。但正如作者伊薩克?夏皮羅所指出的一樣，長期股東沒有什么好抱怨的。如果過去5年一直持有這只股票，它的投資市值已經增長超過了3倍。 ????沒有獲得充分回報的是蘋果零售店的3萬名雇員，他們的薪水低到只有25,000美元/年。而且，約100萬名亞洲合同工每個月如果不算加班收入，工資僅225-288美元。 ????夏皮羅沒有抹殺蘋果為提高亞洲供應鏈系統員工的薪酬水平和工作環境所做出的努力，也沒有說蘋果的競爭對手做得更好。 ????但他指出，蘋果承諾過的一些事情并沒有兌現。 ????例如，2012年3月，蘋果曾經承諾，在富士康工廠組裝蘋果設備的工人過去未獲得報酬的工作時間將獲得補償，包括參加班前會和班后會的時間、用于參加強制性培訓的時間，和一天多達30分鐘的“臨時加班”時間。 ????據夏皮羅稱，這些補償都沒有發放，而且，近期似乎也不準備發放。 ????他平心靜氣地給出了更多的例子，比如，蘋果給股東發放了450億美元現金，同樣沒有蘋果工人的份兒。 ????正如我所說的，在蘋果股票繼續下跌的過程中，這種聲音可能是蘋果投資者最不愿聽到的，但它會在某種程度上抑制增加派息和進行數十億美元股票回購的要求。（財富中文網） |
????The first paragraph of the commentaryposted Wednesday on the website of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank founded by, among others, Clinton-era labor secretary Robert Reich, lays out the thrust of the argument pretty succinctly: ????"For more than a year, there has been a high-profile debate over what Apple should do with its enormous cash reserve, now amounting to $137 billion. The proposals have been curiously one-dimensional, with a nearly exclusive focus on how the reserves should be used to reward its shareholders. Almost entirely absent from the discussion has been whether those reserves should also be used to provide fairer compensation to the workers making its products abroad or selling its products here. This imbalance is part and parcel of a larger trend: the share of economic rewards going to workers is diminishing." ????It's not an idea many Apple (AAPL) investors are going to want to hear, especially with the stock down more than 36% from last September's highs. But as author Isaac Shapiro points out, long-term shareholders have nothing to complain about. Those who stuck with the company over the past five years have seen the value of their investments grow more than three-fold. ????Less amply rewarded are the 30,000 Apple Store employees who make as little as $25,000 a year. Or the roughly 1 million Asian contract workers who take home, before overtime, between $225 and $288 per month. ????Shapiro doesn't diminish the work Apple has done to raise pay scales and improve working conditions in its Asian supply chain. Nor does he suggest that Apple's competitors are doing better. ????But he does point out that some of the pledges Apple made have not been fulfilled. ????For example, in March 2012 Apple promised that workers assembling Apple's devices in Foxconn's factories would be compensated for hours they had worked in the past that had not been paid for, including pre- and post-shift meetings, time spent in mandatory trainings, and as many as 30 minutes of "unscheduled overtime" on any given day. ????According to Shapiro, none of that back pay was ever issued, and it appears that none is forthcoming. ????He's got more examples, laid out fairly dispassionately, in $45+ billion for Apple shareholders, nothing yet for Apple workers. ????As I say, it's probably the last thing Apple investors want to hear on yet another down day for the stock, but it does put those demands for bigger dividends and multibillion dollar stock buybacks in some perspective. |
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