The New Poor:The More You Work, The Less You Get
在台灣，有一大群不分藍領或白領的工作者，他們身強體壯，早出晚歸，然而一天工作所得卻僅能勉強維持基本生活所需，一不小心可能就往社會更底層墜落。他們被稱為「新貧」階級，或是帶有自嘲意味的「窮忙族」。
In Taiwan there is a certain group of working people, both white- and blue-collar, who are healthy, reasonably well educated, and hard working, yet are pulling in only enough money to meet their most basic needs. One misstep and they could find themselves sliding down to the bottom of the social ladder. Known sometimes as “the new poor” or “working poor,” they wryly refer to themselves as “the overworked underclass.”
窮忙族的出現，有人歸咎於台灣租稅制度長期偏袒富人，造成貧富差距擴大，加上住宅、教育、醫療等公共服務都成為昂貴商品，以致窮人難翻身；也有人批評是因越來越彈性化的勞動型態，讓企業在景氣不佳時得以以大量派遣勞工、臨時工代替正職勞工，當成因應籌碼，卻也造成勞工「吃不飽餓不死」的困境。現在景氣回春，該是我們思考如何透過制度面的改革來對抗工作貧窮的好時機。
The appearance of these “over-unders” is ascribed by some to the fact that Taiwan’s tax system has long been heavily biased in favor of the wealthy, magnifying the gap between rich and poor. When you also consider that public goods like housing, education and healthcare have become commercial goods sold for maximum profit, it is all the more difficult for the less well off to turn their lives around. Others say that the fault lies with increasingly flexible modes of labor that allow corporations to lay off large numbers of full-time and full-benefit employees when hard times hit and replace them with lower-paid, no-benefit temps. With the economy rebounding, now is a good time to consider what can be done at the system level to turn back the tide of poverty.
3月初，桃園就業服務站在陽明公園活動中心舉辦的就業博覽會，一大早就湧入上千位求職者，個個臉上表情既期待又忐忑。
It is early March, 2011, and first thing in the morning over a thousand jobseekers crowd into an employment fair being held at the Yangming Park Activities Center by the Taoyuan Employment Services Center. On their faces you can read a combination of hopefulness and hard-learned pessimism.
面容黝黑而略顯憔悴的陳先生支著頭，半無奈地在求職表的年齡欄填上46。「中高齡找工作真的很難！我故意填實歲，比虛歲少報2歲，效果有差！」
A Mr. Chen, dark-complexioned and somewhat worn around the edges, looks deflated as he fills in the number 46 in the box for “age” on the application form.
陳先生與妻子曾經是典型的「黑手頭家」，在電子產業蓬勃的年代，從事主機板零組件外包工作多年，維持著小康之家。然而，3年前受到全球金融危機波及，小工廠的接單量及利潤遽減，只好關閉「家庭工廠」出外謀生，幸好孩子大到能夠半工半讀，存款加上長輩留下來的房子，縮衣節食還能度日。
He and his wife had been classic “self-managed laborers,” keeping up a basic middle-class lifestyle for many years by doing subcontracting work making parts for motherboards when the electronics industry was booming. But three years ago, after the global financial crisis hit, orders and profit margins sharply declined, leaving the Chens little choice but to close up their “at-home factory” and look for work outside.
去年3月，陳先生進入桃園一家LED工廠擔任作業員，工作是研磨散熱片，一天工作8到12小時，底薪即基本工資（原1萬7,280元），要加班才能領較多。「環境不好、很傷身，每個人都帶兩層口罩還是不舒服。做得久的外勞健檢時照X光片，肺部都看得到黑點。」陳先生做了半年後主動求去，理由是額外負擔管理工作，又無技能訓練與升遷指望。現在陳先生仍想快快找到新工作，「一切先求有，再求好。」
Last March Mr. Chen started work at an LED factory milling chip heatsinks. He worked eight to 12 hours per day at a minimum-wage salary of only NT$17,280 per month (about US$550 at the time). Not only was the pay poor, but “the working environment was awful, very unhealthy. Everybody wore two layers of protective masks all the time but still felt terrible. Imported foreign laborers who worked there a long time all had black spots on their chest X-rays when they got their physicals.”
今年剛滿30歲的陳重光，五專國貿科、私校日文系畢業，退伍後卻始終找不到正式工作，都靠打零工度日。最近4年，他是靠著公家機關的「短期促進就業方案」，工作稍微「穩定」。二月底剛結束在勞委會勞保局的6個月臨時工作，日薪800元，早晚還去兼差，月入也僅有2萬元。
Chen Zhongguang, just turned 30, graduated with degrees in international trade from a junior college and Japanese from a university. But when he finished his compulsory military service, he was unable to find a full-time position, and got by with part-time jobs. For the past four years, he has only been able to find “somewhat regular employment” thanks to a government program under which official agencies take on extra employees under short-term contracts. At the end of February 2011 he had just finished up a six-month stint at the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training of the Council of Labor Affairs, but even then he was making only NT$800 per day, and even with an extra part-time job was only totaling about NT$20,000 per month (about US$700 at current exchange rates).
現象：GDP成長，平均薪資卻停滯
GDP grows, wages don’t
文化大學勞工關係系助理教授李健鴻指出，台灣的工作貧窮化現象，可以從這10年台灣受僱者的「平均薪資」與「平均工時」的變動來觀察：
台灣勞工的平均薪資（包括平均薪資與獎金、紅利等非經常性薪資）從1999年的4萬842元，增加至2009年的4萬2,176元，10年來增幅僅有0.32%。
Li Jiang-horng of the Department of Labor and Human Resources at Chinese Culture University points out that the phenomenon of the impoverishment of the working class can be observed by looking at changes in “average wages” and “average working hours.”
In 1999, the average income of employees in Taiwan was NT$40,842 per month, while in 2009 it was NT$42,176, an increase of only 0.32% in a decade (not adjusted for inflation).
These figures include both regular salary and wages as well as irregular payments like holiday bonuses and profit sharing, of which the latter are sharply less for the working poor than higher level workers.
弔詭的是，雖然近年平均薪資停滯甚至倒退，平均工時卻是上升，從2007年12月的183.9小時，攀升到2009年12月的191.1小時，名列全世界工作時數第二長的國家，次於韓國。
Oddly enough, however, though wages have stagnated, average monthly working hours have increased, from 183.9 hours in December of 2007 to 191.1 hours in December of 2009, giving Taiwan the dubious honor of being second-ranked in the world in this category (behind only Korea).
經濟學者周添城的研究指出，1999~2009年這10年間，我國的名目GDP平均成長2.89％，成績不算差，但勞工的平均薪資卻只成長0.58%，顯然經濟成果並沒有雨露均霑。
主計處在解釋「員工薪資成長率為何低於經濟成長率？」的現象時，也強調，GDP的最大分配項目就是受僱報酬，1990年前受僱報酬占GDP比重緩步上升，1990年達到51.7%的歷史高點，此後比重一路下滑，2007年下降到45.55%的低點，營業盈餘比重卻相對攀高，顯示企業主多將賺來的錢留下來預備投資，或放進自己口袋或分配給股東，卻吝於分享給廣大勞工。
Another major indicator of the decline of worker welfare is that workers’ pay has increased at a slower rate than the growth of the economy as a whole. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) explains this by emphasizing that “employee remuneration” is the category under which the largest proportion of GDP is distributed, but the percentage of GDP accounted for by this category has declined. It reached a historic peak of 51.70% in 1990, but has since slid to as low as 45.55% in 2007. Operating surplus has, meanwhile, risen in inverse ¬proportion to the fall in pay for employees. This indicates that those who run enterprises are keeping back more and more of their revenues for other purposes, such as investment, increasing returns to shareholders, or giving themselves higher pay, and are giving less and less of it to the broad mass of employees.
臥底探真相
Undercover in the underclass
新貧現象，全球皆然。然而，長期以來因被漠視、隱而不見，美日和國內的記者、社運者不得不以臥底調查的方式揭發真相。
The phenomenon of the new poor or working poor is global. But because it has long been ignored, the true nature of this problem has only been slowly uncovered in the US, Japan, and Taiwan by reporters and social activists going “under cover.”
12年前，美國專欄作家芭芭拉‧艾倫瑞克為了探究缺乏專業能力的人如何靠薄薪過活，臥底潛入底層職場工作。
Twelve years ago, the American columnist Barbara Ehrenreich went under cover into the lower stratum of the working class to see how people with no special skills try to get by on their thin pay packets.
擔任過女侍、旅館房務員、看護、賣場銷售員後，她深刻體會：不論是趴在地上抹地板、滿頭大汗應付點餐客人、不斷折疊賣場衣服，這些工作都非常耗費體力，容易造成身體傷害；而一旦生病或受傷，就得咬緊牙關撐過去，因為根本沒有生病津貼或健康保險；單靠一份工作仍不足以租屋，必須兼差才能打平；每換一份工作就必須重新適應新環境、人際關係，前途一片茫然。
She worked in jobs like waitress, hotel clerk, caregiver, and department-store salesperson, and one lesson impressed itself deeply upon her: All of these jobs—whether one is scrubbing the floor on one’s knees, sweating buckets running from table to table to take orders, endlessly folding and refolding clothes—are physically exhausting, and even unhealthy, but even if you are sick or injured, you have no choice but to grit your teeth and get through the day, because they come with no sick leave or health insurance. Often one of these jobs, she discovered, isn’t enough to pay the rent, and it is only possible to make ends meet by taking another part-time job. And every time you change jobs you have to adjust to a new environment, figure out how to relate to new people and new bosses, and face up to a bleak future with no prospects for advancement or improvement.
國內財經記者出身的吳偉立，為了了解台灣便利商店加盟體系的運作情形，進入超商打工數周寫成《血汗超商》一書，也發現類似現象。
Former financial reporter Wu Wei-li, in order to write a story on how the franchise system works in Taiwan, went to work in a convenience store for several weeks. The result was the book Convenience Store Sweatshop.
一般來說，加盟總部為了賺取加盟金，常以自己當老闆創業成功為訴求，吸引中年失業族投入，但加盟主進入體制後才知道為了應付激烈的競爭、不得不壓低人事成本，以致店主除了要負責作帳及管理工作外，也要「親上火線」，站收銀台、搬重物、清點貨架、擦拭打掃。更可怕的是，為了維持24小時不打烊的高速運轉，還要機動性填補空缺班表，生活全被店面綁住、生理時鐘大亂，如此賣命，月盈餘（個人薪水）卻可能不到3萬元；萬一撐不下去而提早解約，還要損失加盟金及廉價讓出店鋪。
Generally speaking, the headquarters in a chain makes its money by recruiting franchisees who pay money up front. The corporations mainly appeal to the desire to “be the boss and make something of yourself,” attracting many middle-aged people without a profession. But it is only after they join the system that franchisees find out that they must face relentless competition, and they have little choice but to make cuts in the only area in which they have any flexibility: personnel costs. In the end the owner ends up not only doing the accounting and handling all the management and administrative duties, he or she also has to “man a frontline position,” punching the cash register, moving crates, mopping the floor. To keep the shop running at a frenetic 24/7 pace, the owner even has to fill in when there is an opening in the staff schedule, no matter what shift, until his or her life becomes completely bound up in the store, biological rhythms are turned inside out, and health is sacrificed, all for a measly NT$30,000 a month (about US$1000). Those who give up the fight before fulfilling their contracts lose their franchise deposit and usually have to take a loss subletting the storefront.
窮忙族有警訊
Warning bells
究竟台灣這群收入少得可憐，越忙越窮，還要擔憂丟了飯碗的人，有多少？台灣社會的富裕形象又是在何時出現斷裂？
Just how many people in Taiwan are in this “overworked underclass” who live in fear of losing even what little they have? When did people start to notice this phenomenon under the façade of Taiwan’s wealthy society?
根據內政部調查，2010年第二季全台在法定貧窮線以下的家庭有近10萬8千戶（約26萬3,925人），占總人口約1.1％。然而，這個低估的數字長期被學者詬病，因為台灣是全世界設定扶貧門檻最高的國家之一，比起歐美國家動輒超越10％的比例，或鄰近韓國的7％、日本的6％，我們的富裕程度只是帳面上的數字遊戲。
According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were nearly 108,000 households below the official poverty line as of the second quarter of 2010, or a total of 263,925 persons, roughly 1.1% of the population. However, scholars have long ridiculed this lowball figure, because Taiwan has one of the most difficult-to-meet official standards for poverty in the world. In contrast, over 10% of the people fall below the official poverty line in the US and Europe, about 6% in Japan, and about 7% in Korea, a comparable economy to Taiwan’s. The high ratio of people allegedly having adequate wealth in our society is the result of little more than a numbers game.
台大社工系教授林萬億指出，若依照歐美國家計算貧窮線的公式，台灣約有7％的窮人，也就是約有一百多萬名的貧困者沒有得到政府任何補助與社會關懷。
Lin Wan-I, a professor in the Department of Social Work at National Taiwan University, says that if the formula used to calculate poverty in the US and Europe were to be applied in Taiwan, 7% of Taiwan’s people would be defined as poor and thus be eligible for assistance. In other words, there are more than a million people in Taiwan who are poor in actuality but do not get any official attention.
中央大學「溫世仁管理講座」教授兼副校長李誠2006年在研討會論文「錢多時少與錢少時多：全球化所帶來人力運用不均的問題」中早有警訊，指出台灣自1985年以後「窮忙富閒」的現象愈來愈嚴重。
n an article published in 2006, Joseph S. Lee, vice-president of National Central University and a long-time professor of management, pointed out that as early as 1985 Taiwan was already seeing the poor working longer hours than the wealthy.
他將25~64歲男性全職工作者的工資分為十等分，比較最高與最低所得組的薪資與工時變化，發現1980年薪資在最高90％以上的員工，平均時薪是316.9元，平均每週工時52.5小時；而薪資在最低10％的員工時薪是61.8元，每週工時49.7小時。
1990年，薪資最高組的平均時薪是最低薪資組的5倍，工時卻縮減為最低薪資者的92.9％，也就是說，當時已出現高薪者「賺得多工時短」的現象。到了2005年，薪資差距更惡化達到10倍，而高薪者的工時更短，約為低薪者的86.2％；至於女性的差距比男性更大，顯示底層勞工已陷入「低工資長工時，難以累積人力資本」的惡性循環。
He divided full-time workers aged 25 to 64 into 10 categories according to pay, and then compared the changes in earnings and working hours of the highest and lowest groups. He discovered that in 1990, the average per-hour pay of the highest group was five times that of the lowest, but their working hours were only 92.9% of the latter. That is to say, even then the situation was one in which “the highest paid worked the fewest hours.” By 2005, the richest were making ten times as much per hour as the poorest, but their relative working hours had fallen even further, to only 86.2% of the latter, showing that the lowest strata were getting an ever smaller piece of the pie despite working proportionately even harder than before.
原因：全球化衝擊，產業結構轉型
Globalization exports jobs
分析原因，1990年代全球經濟型態出現劇烈變化，開發中國家釋出大量勞工；台灣也從勞力密集的產業轉向技術密集。1991年政府開放大陸投資、2002年加入世界貿易組織後，台灣產業大量外移，國內勞動市場供過於求。台灣產業政策不合時宜、過度偏向電子製造業，也是元兇。
What are the reasons? One is that there has been a dramatic structural change in the world economy over the last two decades. Developing countries have made vast pools of low-cost labor available, while Taiwan has made the transition from labor-intensive to technology-intensive industries. In 1991 the ROC began permitting its firms to invest in mainland China, and in 2002 Taiwan acceded to the World Trade Organization, further hastening the out-migration of companies, and so causing demand in Taiwan’s labor market to fall well below supply. Another problem is that inappropriate industrial policies have been excessively oriented toward the electronics industry.
多年前，中央大學經濟系教授朱雲鵬即為文提醒，台灣產業以電子業和製造業為主力，其中工業部門平均要花30億元的投資，才能創造1,000個就業機會；以12吋晶圓廠來說，必須投入700億到一千億元，才能增加1,000個就業機會。而批發零售與餐飲業，只要6億元的投資，就可創造同等就業機會，因此台灣若要提升經濟景氣，除了靠大型高科技業領軍外，還要多扶植服務業，雙頭並進，不可偏廢一端。
Quite a few years ago, Chu Yun-peng, a professor in the Department of Economics at National Central University, wrote in an article that in the main industries in Taiwan, electronics and manufacturing, it takes about NT$3 billion in investment to create 1000 jobs. In the 12-inch wafer industry, to take an extreme example, it takes NT$70–100 billion in investment to create 1000 jobs. In the retail and food industries, meanwhile, you get the same number of jobs for only NT$600 million. If Taiwan wants to restore prosperity, besides relying on large-scale high-tech national champions, it must also, in parallel, support the service sector. Both should be promoted, without undue bias toward one or the other.
估計自2001年後，台灣服務業產值就占六成，2000~2009年間，服務業部門的就業人數比從46.6％大幅增加到58.8％，成為就業機會的主要來源。然而，除了少數講求專業技術、或是靠金融資本運作的行業，絕大多數的服務業因以中小企業居多，偏向內需型，受市場狹小所侷限，加上工會組織率偏低，以致薪資很難大幅提升，但這也與台灣勞動市場型態逐漸彈性化有關。
It is estimated that since 2001, the service sector has accounted for more than 60% of the country’s total value of production, and the percentage of employed people accounted for by services rose from 46.6% in 2000 to 58.8% in 2009, making services into the primary source of jobs. However, because the service sector—except for a small number of occupations involving high-tech or financial and capital services—is mainly composed of small businesses, its market is limited to domestic demand, and it has a very low rate of unionization of workers, it is unlikely that pay for employees will rise very much. However, this is also related to the fact that Taiwan’s labor market is increasingly flexible.
勞動彈性化的大迷思
Who gains from flexibility
當全球化浪潮來襲，身為國際成員的我們，也適時因應，而全球化反應的經濟與社會價值，就是「新自由主義」，強調「國家解除管制與經濟自由化」。
因此，國家藉著鬆綁勞動法規，吸引企業投資創造就業機會，而企業也藉著工作外包或運用部分工時勞動、派遣勞工（即所謂的「非典型工作者」），以降低生產成本，增加產品競爭力。
As globalization has intensified, Taiwan, highly internationalized, has adjusted in a timely manner. But the economic and social values reflected in globalization are “neo-liberalism,” which is to say “deregulation and economic liberalization.”
Countries are relaxing labor laws in order to attract corporations to invest in enterprises and create jobs, while firms are outsourcing labor or using part-time wage workers or agency temps (so-called “atypical” or “non-traditional” employees) to reduce production costs and increase the competitiveness of their products.
前台大社工系教授詹火生指出，勞動彈性化政策，表面上讓失業問題暫時得到抒解，卻造成「核心與邊陲」的M型化勞動型態，也就是勞工被區分為對企業重要的核心勞工，以及可替代性高的邊際勞工兩大類。核心勞工享有較佳的工作保障、福利與職業訓練機會，技術水準較低的邊際勞工，卻因低工資、福利少，就業不穩定，陷入了工作貧窮的困境。
Chan Hou-sheng, formerly a professor in the Department of Social Work at National Taiwan University, notes that, on the surface, a policy of increased flexibility in the labor market presents a way to temporarily ease the problem of unemployment, but it leads to the formation of an M-shaped society with a “core” and a “periphery.” That is, workers are divided into “core employees” who are vital to the corporation and peripheral workers who are easily replaceable. Core workers enjoy greater job security, benefits, and professional training, while low-skilled peripheral workers—getting low wages, few benefits, and no job stability—fall into the ranks of the working poor.
根據主計處去年底公布的「人力運用調查報告」顯示，去年5月全台從事非典型工作的人數達72.3萬人（其中「部分工時」與「臨時或派遣」人數會有重疊），較2009年增加3.6萬人，占全體就業者的6.92％。
According to the Report on the Manpower Utilization Survey released at the end of 2010 by the DGBAS, as of May 2010 there were 723,000 people in Taiwan doing “atypical” jobs, an increase of 36,000 people over 2009. The 2010 figure accounted for 6.92% of all employed persons.
從行業別來看，支援服務業（如仲介、保全業）的非典型人力比例最高（19.15％），營造業次之（15.9%），教育服務業（如補習班、駕訓班與托育機構等）第三（9.34％），住宿及餐飲業排名第四（8.74％）。
Broken down by industry, the support services industry (such as temp agencies, companies providing private security guards, and the like) has the highest proportion of atypical workers at 19.15%, followed by the construction industry (15.9%), with educational services (like cram schools, driver’s education courses, and pre-schools) third at 9.34%, and the hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, etc.) fourth (8.74%).
坑勞工的血汗錢
Blood, sweat, and fears
非典型工作，環境不佳、待遇低，更常遭受不平等待遇。
Atypical workers not only have poor working environments and low wages, but are also often subjected to unfair treatment.
專科畢業的明憲，自從2002年33歲那年失去擔任9年的穩定全職工作後，斷斷續續在不同工廠擔任臨時作業員，其間空窗期長達1年。最近一次的短期派遣工作是保全，內容則是替休假的正職員工「代班」，地點、時間不穩定；上工9天後，明憲對於日夜顛倒和東奔西跑深感不慣而辭職，然而保全公司在結算時，卻以「沒做滿一年」為由，從以日計薪的微薄薪水中多扣一筆「制服費用」，算下來只領到4千多元。
Back in 2002, Mingxian, a junior college graduate, who was 33 at the time, lost the steady full-time position that he had held for nine years. He has since worked on and off as a temporary employee in various factories, with periods of as long as one year with no work at all. His most recent temp job was as a security guard taking shifts substituting for full-time guards who were taking time off. As a result, he had no regular place or hours of work. After nine days on the job, Mingxian couldn’t adapt to his irregular hours that turned morning and evening upside down, and to running all over town to different assignments, and he quit. In response, because he did not work a full year, the company deducted a charge for the company uniform that he had worn from his already tiny wages (calculated by the day), and he walked away with only just over NT$4000 in his pocket.
台灣勞工陣線秘書長孫友聯說，非典型受僱者雖然依法享有勞工法規訂定的權益，但實務上常被鑽漏洞。以派遣來說，高達九成的仲介業者，甚至是赫赫有名的人力銀行，只是將人力「轉介」給企業，沒有打算長期僱用派遣勞工，不但不負擔勞工應有的勞健保、資遣費、退休金提撥及其他福利，發生職災時也不用負擔雇主責任，卻還要抽取10～15%的「行政管理費」。
Son Yu-lian, secretary-general of the Taiwan Labour Front, admits that while “atypical workers” in theory enjoy all the rights and privileges provided for in labor regulations, in practice such people often fall through the cracks. Taking temps, for example, 90% of temp agencies—and even some “manpower banks” whose names are known throughout Taiwan—only “refer” workers to companies, but don’t take the temp workers on as employees. Therefore, the agencies not only avoid responsibility for health insurance, severance pay, pensions, and similar benefits to which all workers are supposed to be entitled, but they even take no responsibility as “employer” if there is any on-the-job accident. Yet these same temp agencies charge 10–15% of the pay of each temp they refer for “administrative overhead.”
從2005年勞委會對十種職業類別的薪資調查可見，派遣勞工的平均薪資只有正職勞工的八成（尚未扣除行政費用），其中差距最大者為電話客服人員，平均薪資只有正職人員的46.4%，快遞與搬運業的派遣勞工次之，平均薪資為正職的63.6%。
From a survey conducted in 2005 by the CLA of wages and salaries in 10 major categories of employment, it can be seen that temp workers on average receive only 80% of the pay that full-time employees get, even before deducting “administrative overhead.” The gap is worst for customer service workers who staff telephones, with temps earning only 46.4% of the pay of full-time employees; the express delivery and goods transport industry is next to last, at 63.6%.
對策：安貧、抗貧到稅賦公平
What is to be done?
要解決比舊貧更盤根錯節的新貧問題，首先要確立的觀念是：「貧困不是個人的問題」，而是社會結構問題。
The essential prerequisite to solving the problem of the new poor, a much more complex one than that of the old poor, is that you must recognize that “poverty is not a personal problem,” but is a social structural problem.
文化大學勞工關係系副助理教授李健鴻建議，從「擴大社會救助」到「保障勞動安全」，形成正向循環的抗貧對策。
Chinese Culture University’s Li Jiang-horng advises that an anti-poverty program that could create a virtuous circle can take shape through “expanding social assistance” and “guaranteeing labor security.”
首先，放寬貧窮線認定標準，擴大社會救助範圍：去年底立法院已通過「社會救助法」修正案，將現行貧窮線（最低生活費）的計算方式與先進國家的標準接軌，也就是從「平均每人消費支出60%」，修改為「平均每人可支配所得中位數的60%」，預計今年7月實施後，可發揮消極安貧之效。
First, in order to expand the scope of social assistance it is necessary to broaden the definition of “poverty.” In fact, at the end of 2010 the Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Social Assistance Act to bring the methods for calculating the poverty line (the bare minimum cost of living) in line with formulae used in developed countries. Specifically, the term “60% of mean individual consumer expenditure” was changed to “60% of median individual disposable income.” The new formula is expected to go into effect in July of 2011, and will have the effect of making more people eligible for existing assistance programs.
其次，提高基本工資至合理水準：根據國際勞工組織的「最低工資公約」定義，最低工資設立宗旨是要滿足勞工及其家庭成員的需要。以2009年台灣勞工每人平均扶養人數為1.25人、台灣省每人每月最低生活費為9,800元來計算，那麼勞工自己加上被扶養的親屬，每月至少需要2萬2,000元才能生活，但去年9月基本工資調升卻只提高到17,880元，實有再提高的必要。
Secondly, the minimum wage must be raised to a reasonable level. As defined under the International Labor Organization’s Minimum Wage Fixing Convention (1970), the intent of setting a minimum wage is to meet the basic needs of workers and their families. Calculating on the basis of figures for 2009, each worker in Taiwan had to support an average of 1.25 people, and the minimum cost of living per person at that time was NT$9800, which means that an average worker would have to take home NT$22,000 per month to meet his or her basic living expenses plus those of his or her dependents. However, even ¬after being raised in September of 2010, the current minimum wage stands at only NT$17,880, so there is definitely a need for it to be reassessed.
勞委會主委王如玄之前曾承諾，未來勞委會每年都會審議基本工資，但必須與各工商團體協商，取得共識。
Wang Ju-hsuan, minister of the Council of Labor Affairs, has promised that in the future the CLA will review the minimum wage each year, but with the caveat that any increase would require consensus with the country’s commercial and industrial associations (i.e. lobby groups of employers).
最後是保障非典型工作者的勞動權益，以派遣為例，在明確規範派遣公司與要派公司的雇主責任外，勞工團體更期待落實同工同酬。但攸關基層勞工權益的勞基法派遣專章，卻仍待勞委會整合各方意見，送交行政院審議。
過去幾年，為了挽救令人心驚的失業率，政府忙著提供各種短期就業機會，其實調整產業結構、改革稅制才是根本，若不徹底檢討現行資本利得課稅的缺失，很難舒緩日漸惡化的貧富差距。
Over the past few years, in an effort to deal with the shocking unemployment rate, the government has been frantically coming up with a variety of short-term employment opportunities. But in fact the core problems are in the industrial structure and the tax system. Unless the government reevaluates the very low tax rates on capital gains, which are much lower than earnings from employment, it will be very difficult to even moderate the pace at which the gap between rich and poor is widening.
讓日本社會正視工作貧窮議題的湯淺誠提醒我們：不要以為你自己不是部分工時者、不是派遣勞工，就能置身事外。當企業嚐到「彈性」運用人力的甜頭後，誰還會雇用正式勞工，願意負擔勞健保退休金、與工會溝通？漠不關心，是反貧窮的最大敵人，不逃不離，正面迎擊，台灣亦然。
Let’s lend an ear to the reminder given to us by Yuasa Makoto, an expert on the working poor in Japanese society: Don’t assume that just because you are not a part-time worker or temp worker that you are unaffected. When corporations get a taste of how sweet “flexible employment” of manpower is, will they ever again want to take on full-time employees and absorb the costs of their health insurance and retirement pensions, not to mention dealing with labor unions? Apathy is the biggest obstacle to halting the poverty trend, a trend which cannot be escaped, so must be con¬fronted head on.
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