注：译自华盛顿邮报 原文
By Abha Bhattarai and Todd C.Frankel january 11 at 3:43 PM
由 Abha Bhattarai 和 Todd C.Frankel 于 1 月 11 日下午 3:43 发表
A worker organizes products for Christmas season at a Walmart store in Teterboro,N.J.(Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
一名在 Teterboro 的一家沃尔玛超市为圣诞节摆放商品的员工。N,J.（Eduardo Munoz /路透社）
Walmart ,the largest U.S. private employers with more than 1 millon workers, said Thursday it plan to raise starting wages from $9 to $11 an hour and hand out employee bonuses ranging from $200 to $1,000, becoming the latest company to give a least some of the credit for new worker benefits to the recently passed tax plan.
沃尔玛拥有 100 多万名员工，是美国最大的私人雇主，周四发表声明，计划将员工的起始薪资从 9 美元每小时提高到 11 美元每小时，并且给员工发放 200 美元到 1000 美元不等的奖金，成为最新的因最近通过的税务计划为员工提供新福利的公司。
But economists and professors cast doubt on whether tax policy changes were the driving force behind the move by a retailing giant that for years has stood as a lightning rod for criticism over low worker pay.
但是经济学家和专家们对税收政策的改变，是否是零售巨头沃尔玛这一举动背后的真正原因表示怀疑，沃尔玛多年以来都被视为低工资批评的避雷针。
With the national unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, There are more job openings in the retail industry than at any time since the turn of the century, government data show.
政府的数据表明，自世纪之交以来，全国失业率 为 4.1%，创下十七年来的新低，零售业的就业机会比以往任何时候都多。
With its announcement on Thursday, Walmart didn’t mention the great difficulty employers are having finding and retaining workers in the retail industry.
沃尔玛周四的声明中，没有提及雇主在零售业寻找和留住员工的巨大困难。
“Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.,” Walmart’s Cheif Executive Douglas McMillon said.
沃尔玛的首席执行官 Douglas McMillon 说 “税制改革给了我们更多的机会，使我们更具全球竞争力，并且加快了在美国的计划。”
Observer said Walmart almost had to raise wages now if it wanted to keep step with peers such as Target, which late last year raised its starting wage to $11 an hour,with plans to reach $15 by 2020.
观察家说如果沃尔玛想和业内保持同样的目标的话，现在几乎不得不提高薪资，业内在去年年底已经将薪资提高到了 11 美元每小时，并且计划在 2020 年提高到 15 美元每小时。
“I would’ve been astounded if they hadn’t raised wages, “said Thomas Kochan,a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “What’s impossible to sort out is how much of this is because of saving from the tax cuts, and how much is because of pressure they’re receiving from employees and labor groups.”
“如果他们还不涨薪，我可能会被震惊” MIT’s Sloan 学校的一名管理学教授说，“根本分不清楚，他们涨薪有多少可能是因为减税节省出了钱，有多少可能是因为来自雇员和劳动组织的压力。”
The entry of Walmart into the tax-reform debate accelerates the contentious discussion over how much the tax plan, still only weeks only,truly factors into these corporate decisions. American Airlines and AT&T, among others, have announced $1,000 bonuses for employees because of tax reform. Wells Fargo is among a smaller group that has also pledged a $15-an-hour minimum wage following the tax plan’s passage. But experts are more doubtful that there’s a connection. Many expect wages to rise when corporations have more money, but that is supposed to flow from new investments measured in years, not weeks.
沃尔玛的入局加速了税制改革这个争议不断的话题的争论，影响这些公司做出决定的原因有多大的比重是因为新的税收计划。仅仅几个周的时间，其中美国航空公司和 AT&T 公司就宣布因为税制改革向员工提供 1,000 美元的奖金。Wells Fargo 是一个较小的集团，在税收计划通过后，也给出了每小时 15 美元的最低薪资。但是专家们更加怀疑这些公司的决定与税收计划有关。许多人希望公司拥有更多钱的时候涨薪，但是这应该是有多年的新投资了流入公司，而不是几个周的新投资。
Walmart also said Thursday it would expand its parental-leave policies for hourly workers and begin providing $5,000 in aid to workers adopting a child. (The company currently offers six to eight weeks of partially paid maternity leave for hourly employees and no paternity leave.)
沃尔玛周四还表示，将扩展小时工的产假政策，并且开始为收养了小孩的工人提供 5,000 美元的援助。（该公司现在给时薪员工提供 6 到 8 个周的部分薪资产假但是没有陪产假）
But it wasn’t all good news. The retailer also said Thursday that it had suddenly closed 63 Sam’s Club stores, affecting thousands of workers. In a tweet, the company said the closures would help “better align” its physical locations with its strategy. (Ten locations will reopen as e-commerce fulfillment centers.)
但是这并不完全是个好消息，该零售商同时也表示，他们已经快速地关闭了 63 家 Sam 的俱乐部商店，数千名员工受到影响。沃尔玛在推特上表示，这次关店帮助他们将商店的物理地址与其策略保持一致。（将在10个地方重新开店作为电子商务执行中心）
Walmart said the pay increases apply to all its hourly workers in the United States, including those at its Sam’s Club stores.
沃尔玛表示加薪适用于其所有的小时员工，包括其位于 Sam 俱乐部的商店。
The retail giant said the pay raises would take effect Feb.17 and the bonuses paid sometime after this month. It also plans to give one-time cash bonuses to some part-time and full-time workers, ranging from $200 (for workers who have been at Walmart for less than two years) to $1,000(for those who have been working there for 20 or more years).
该零售巨头称加薪将于 2 月 17 日生效，并且奖金将在本月过后发放。他们还计划向一些兼职和全职的员工发放一次性现金奖金，范围从 200 美元（在沃尔玛工作两年以下的员工）到 1,000 美元（在沃尔玛工作 20 年及以上的员工）。
“Today, we are building on investments we’ve been making in associates, in their wages and skills development,” McMillon said. News of Walmart’s investment was cheered by supporters of the tax plan, which slashes the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and includes other features expected to generate windfall profits for companies.
“今天我们正在建立我们在员工身上的投资，包括他们的薪资和技能发展，” McMillon 表示。沃尔玛投资的消息受到了税收计划支持者的喝彩，其将美国公司的税率从 35% 削减到了 21%，并且包括给公司产生带来意外利润的其他特性。
“We want to thank them,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said of Walmart’s decision.” Walmart is the latest company to make such an announcement, directly [as a] result of the tax cuts.”
“我们想感谢他们，” 财政部长 Steven Mnuchin 对沃尔玛的做法表示，“沃尔玛是最新的一家因为减税政策，做出这样决定的公司。”
But Walmart’s new $700 million plan pales in comparison to the retailer’s 2015 $2.7 billion, two-year plan to boost worker pay and benefits, which resulted in across-the-board pay raises that landed all on one day in February 2016, billed as the largest single-day, private-sector pay hike ever.
但是沃尔玛 7 亿美元的新计划，和他 2015 年 27 亿美元的旨在提高员工薪资和福利的两年计划相形见绌，该两年计划导致 2016 年 2 月的某一天实现了全面加薪，被称为有史以来私营部门最大的单日加薪。
That’s when Walmart said it would begin paying entry-level workers $10 an hour, after a training peird.
那个时候沃尔玛表示，将开始给经过培训期的入门级别员工支付每小时 10 美元的薪资。
Walmart said the wage increases would add about $300 million expenses to its budget for the next fiscal year. The one-time cash bonuses, meanwhile, will cost the company about $400 million, or about 0.08 percent of its annual revenue. For 2016, the company reported $485.87 billion in annual revenue on profits of $13.64 billion.
沃尔玛表示涨薪可能会给下一个财政年度的预算增加大约 3 亿美元的开支。与此同时，一次性现金奖励也会花费公司 4 亿美元，或者 0.08% 的年收入。 2016 年，沃尔玛报告显示年度收入为 4858.7 亿美元，利润为 136.4 亿美元。
The tax changes will save Walmart $2 billion a year, according to estimates from Making Change at Walmart, a campaign run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
联合国粮食和商业工人国际联盟表示，根据沃尔玛的变化估计，税收政策的改变将会使沃尔玛每年节省 20 亿美元。
“The fact is that Walmart is not permanently investing the estimated $2 billion it will receive annually from Trump’s tax giveaway to its workers — it is keeping almost all of it,”said Randy Parraz, director of Making Change at Walmart, a campaign run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “This is nothing but another public relations stunt from Walmart to distract from the reality that they are laying off thousands of workers and the ones who remain will continue to receive low wages.”
“事实上沃尔玛并非持续地，把每年从特朗普税收政策获得的约 20 亿美元，投资给他的员工 — 他几乎全部据为己有”沃尔玛的制造改革总监 Randy Parraz 说。联合国粮食和商业工人国际联盟表示“这无非是沃尔玛的公共关系噱头，是为了分散他们裁掉成千上万名员工的事实，剩下的员工将依旧拿着低工资。”
Christine Owens， the Nationl Employment Law Project’s executive director, described the new benefits as a”low-ball announcement by Walmart.”
Christion Owens，全国就业法项目的执行董事，将这个新的福利形容为“沃尔玛的低调宣布。”
Eleven dollars an hour equals about $19,000 a year for 34-hour weeks, which Walmart considers full time. That is below the national poverty line for a family of three.
沃尔玛认为全职应该每周工作 34 小时，每小时 11 美元，一年大约是 19,000 美元，这低于三口之家的国家贫困线。
Emeraid Gems earns $11 an hour after seven years at Walmart. Gems, who lives in Gettysburg, Pa., said in an email that more is needed from the retailer.
住在宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡的 Emeraid Gems 在沃尔玛工作七年后每小时挣 11 美元，他在一封电子邮件中表示，需要从零售商里获得更多的报酬。
“The one-time bonus I’ll be getting won’t help me long-term,” Gems said.”We need $15 and full-time to be able to support our families.”
“我获得的一次性奖金不会对我有长远的帮助，” Gems 说 “我们需要全职每小时 15 美元的薪资才能支撑我们的家庭 。”
Staff writers Damian Paletta and Andrew Van Dam contributed to this report.
职业作家 Damian Paletta 和 Andrew Van Dam 对这份报道做出了贡献。