奥巴马2014年4月26日演讲译文
 

Hi, everybody.  In my State of the Union Address, I talked about pizza.  More specifically, I talked about a pizza chain in Minneapolis – Punch Pizza – whose owner, John Soranno, made the business decision to give his employees a raise to ten bucks an hour.
 

A couple weeks ago, I got a letter from a small business owner who watched that night.  Yasmin Ibrahim is an immigrant who owns her own restaurant – Desi Shack – and plans to open another this summer.
 

Here’s what she wrote.  “I was moved by John Soranno’s story.  It got me thinking about my … full-time employees and their ability to survive on $8 an hour in New York City.”  So a few weeks ago, Yasmin put in place a plan to lift wages for her employees at both her restaurants to at least $10 an hour by the end of this year.
 

But here’s the thing – Yasmin isn’t just raising her employees’ wages because it’s the right thing to do.  She’s doing it for the same reason John Soranno did. It makes good business sense.
 

大家好。在国情咨文演讲中，我谈到了比萨。特别是我谈到了明尼波利斯的比萨连锁店--Punch Pizza--的老板，John Soranno，决定了给他的员工工资提高到每小时10美元。
几周前，我收到了一封来自一个小企业主的信，他那天晚上看了电视。Yasmin Ibrahim是一个经营自己的餐馆--Desi Shack--的移民，准备今年夏天在开一家店。
她在信中说：“我被John Soranno的故事深深地打动了。这让我考虑我自己的经营……全职员工和每小时8美元的工作在纽约生活的境况。”于是几周前，Yasmin决定给在年底前她的两个店的员工的工资提高到每小时10美元。
但是这件事的意义在于--Yasmin不仅仅是提高了她的员工的工资，她是做了正确的事。她做这件事的原因和John Soranno一样。合乎企业经营利益。
 

Yasmin wrote, “It will allow us to attract and retain better talent – improving customer experience, reducing employee churn and training costs.  We believe doing so makes good business sense while at the same time having a positive impact on the community.”
 

Yasmin's right.  That’s why, two months ago, I issued an Executive Order requiring workers on new federal contracts to be paid a fair wage of at least ten dollars and ten cents an hour.
 

But in order to make a difference for every American, Congress needs to do something.  And America knows it.  Right now, there’s a bill that would boost America’s minimum wage to ten dollars and ten cents an hour.  That would lift wages for nearly 28 million Americans across the country.  28 million.  And we’re not just talking about young people on their first job.  The average minimum wage worker is 35 years old.  They work hard, often in physically demanding jobs.
 

Yasmin写道：“这使我们能够吸引和留住更好的员工--增加顾客满意度，减少员工变动和培训的成本。我们相信这样做对企业有利于企业，同时还对社会有积极影响。”
Yasmin是对的。这就是为什么两个月前，我颁布总统令要求联邦政府雇佣的工人必须得到至少每小时10美元10美分的公平工资。
但是为了给每个美国人带来改变，国会也应该如此。美国在看。迄今为止，支持把美国的最低工资提高到每小时10美元10美分的议案已经提交到国会了。它将提高近全美2千8百万人的工资。2千8百万啊。我们不仅仅谈及做第一份工作的年轻人。拿最低工资的工人的平均年龄是35岁。他们努力工作，通常是做体力劳动。
 

And while not all of us always see eye to eye politically, one thing we overwhelmingly agree on is that nobody who works full-time should ever have to live in poverty.  That’s why nearly three in four Americans support raising the minimum wage.  The problem is, Republicans in Congress don’t support raising the minimum wage.  Some even want to get rid of it entirely.  In Oklahoma, for example, the Republican governor just signed a law prohibiting cities from establishing their own minimum wage.