덴마크 버거킹 직원의 시간당 임금 20달러, 미국은 9달러

“We don’t want there to be a big difference between the richest and poorest, because poor people would just get really poor,” Mr. Drescher added. “We don’t want people living on the streets. If that happens, we consider that we as a society have failed.”

“우리는 가난한 사람과 부유한 사람 사이에 차이가 너무 크길 원하지 않습니다. 또 우리는 사람들이 (생계를 유지하지 못해서) 거리에 내몰리는 것을 원하지도 않아요. 만약 그런 일이 일어난다면 한 사회로서 우리는 실패한 것을 의미하니까요.” (NYT)

[전문]

최근 어느 오후, 햄퍼스 에로프슨(Hampus Elofsson)은 버거킹에서의 주당 40시간의 일을 끝내고 친구들과 맥주를 마시며 영화를 볼 준비를 하고 있었습니다. 월세와 각종 고지서를 내고 저금을 조금 한 뒤에도 여전히 소소한 여가 생활을 누릴 여유가 있는 것입니다. 그 비밀은 바로 그가 시간당 20달러를 받기 때문입니다.

시간당 20달러는 덴마크의 패스트푸드 체인에서 일하는 노동자들의 기본 급여인데 이는 미국의 페스트푸드 체인 노동자들이 받는 금액의 2.5배에 해당합니다. 에로프슨은 말합니다. “덴마크에서는 패스트푸드 체인에서 일하면서도 괜찮은 삶을 살 수 있어요.

아등바등 살지 않아도 돼요.” 에로프슨과 같은 유럽의 노동자 사례를 주목하면서 최근 미국의 노동 운동가들과 진보 학자들은 도발적인 질문을 던질 준비를 하고 있습니다: 만약 덴마크가 페스드푸드 체인 노동자들에게 시간당 20달러의 임금을 지급할 수 있다면, 왜 미국은 미국의 패스트푸드 노동자들이 그토록 원하는 임금인 시간당 15달러를 지급하지 못하는가?

워싱턴디씨의 진보적 연구기관인 경제정책연구소(Center for Economic Policy Research)의 존 슈미트(John Schmitt)는 말합니다. “덴마크의 사례를 통해서 우리는 노동자들에게 생활 임금(living wage)을 지급하면서도 수익이 나는 패스트푸드 체인을 운영할 수 있다는 것을 알 수 있습니다.” 미국의 많은 경제학자와 기업들은  덴마크와 미국 사이에는 근본적인 차이가 있기 때문에 절대적인 임금을 비교하는 것 자체가 잘못되었다고 지적합니다.

덴마크의 높은 물가와 세금, 그리고 보편적 의료 보험 제도를 갖춘 관대한 복지 시스템 그리고 노사 간 단체교섭을 통해서 임금이 결정되는 점 등을 이들은 지적합니다. 그리고 덴마크의 패스트푸드 체인은 미국의 패스트푸드 체인보다 이윤이 적게 남습니다.

패스트푸드 체인을 대표하는 단체인 세계프랜차이즈연맹(International Franchise Association)의 회장인 스티브 칼데이라(Steve Caldeira)는 덴마크에서의 기업/노동 관행을 미국의 그것과 비교하는 것은 사과와 오렌지를 비교하는 것과 같다며 애초에 비교할 수 없다고 말합니다.

덴마크에는 최저임금이 없습니다. 하지만 앞서 소개한 에로프슨씨가 시간당 받는 20달러는 덴마크의 3F 노동조합과 버거킹이나 스타벅스와 같은 기업을 대표하는 단체인 호레스타(Horesta) 사이에 맺어진 교섭에 따라 패스트푸드 산업에서 일하는 노동자가 받을 수 있는 최소한의 임금입니다. 반면, 미국 페스트푸드 체인 노동자들이 받는 임금은 너무 낮아서 이들 중 절반은 어떤 형태로든 정부의 보조를 받고 있습니다.

미국의 패스트푸드 체인 노동자들이 받는 임금은 시간당 8.9달러입니다. 덴마크에서 패스트푸드 체인 노동자들은 미국에서 같은 산업에 종사하는 노동자들이 꿈만 꿀 수 있는 혜택을 실제로 누리고 있습니다. 단체 교섭 협정에 따라 5주간의 유상 휴가가 주어지고 남녀 모두에게 유급 출산 휴가가 허용되며 퇴직 연금의 혜택을 받을 수 있습니다.

만약 오후 6시가 넘어서 일을 하거나 일요일에 일하게 되면 초과근무 수당을 반드시 지급 받습니다. 또 미국 노동자들과 달리, 덴마크의 패스트푸드 체인 노동자들은 노동 시간 일정을 4주 전에 미리 받으며 패스트푸드 체인 운영자는 매출이 좋지 않다는 이유로 돈을 지급하지 않고는 노동 시간을 강제로 줄일 수 없습니다.

덴마크 법은 패스트푸드 기업이나 프랜차이즈가 3F 노동조합과 맺은 계약을 반드시 준수해야 한다고 명시하고 있지 않습니다. 하지만 기업들은 이를 준수하는데 왜냐면 직원들과 노동조합이 기업을 상대로 파업이나 시위, 혹은 구매거부운동을 하지 않겠다고 약속했기 때문입니다.

맥도날드는 처음 덴마크에 진출했을 당시인 1980년대에 노사단체교섭 과정에 참여하는 것이나 교섭 내용을 준수하는 것을 거부했었습니다. 하지만 1년간의 시끌벌적한 소란과 노동조합이 이끈 시위 이후에 맥도날드는 덴마크의 노사 문화를 받아들이기 시작했습니다.

덴마크의 물가는 미국보다 30%가량 높긴 하지만 시간당 20달러의 임금은 여전히 생활 영위가 가능하도록 만들어줍니다. 미국의 레스토랑 기업들은 만약 패스트푸드 체인 노동자들의 최저임금이 15달러로 상승하면 레스토랑들이 지원 채용을 꺼려서 노동자들의 고용 기회가 줄어들 것이라고 예측합니다.

덴마크에서의 높은 임금은 레스토랑들이 내는 이윤이 미국보다 적다는 것을 의미합니다. 하지만 그래도 여전히 덴마크의 패스트푸드 체인들은 이윤을 내고 있습니다. 공항 레스토랑 운영 기업인 HMS호스트 덴마크(HMSHost Denmark)의 매니저는 말합니다.

“우리는 가난한 사람과 부유한 사람 사이에 차이가 너무 크길 원하지 않습니다. 또 우리는 사람들이 (생계를 유지하지 못해서) 거리에 내몰리는 것을 원하지도 않아요. 만약 그런 일이 일어난다면 한 사회로서 우리는 실패한 것을 의미하니까요.” (NYT)

COPENHAGEN — On a recent afternoon, Hampus Elofsson ended his 40-hour workweek at a Burger King and prepared for a movie and beer with friends. He had paid his rent and all his bills, stashed away some savings, yet still had money for nights out.

That is because he earns the equivalent of $20 an hour — the base wage for fast-food workers throughout Denmark and two and a half times what many fast-food workers earn in the United States.

“You can make a decent living here working in fast food,” said Mr. Elofsson, 24. “You don’t have to struggle to get by.”

With an eye to workers like Mr. Elofsson, some American labor activists and liberal scholars are posing a provocative question: If Danish chains can pay $20 an hour, why can’t those in the United States pay the $15 an hour that many fast-food workers have been clamoring for?

“We see from Denmark that it’s possible to run a profitable fast-food business while paying workers these kinds of wages,” said John Schmitt, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research, a liberal think tank in Washington.

Many American economists and business groups say the comparison is deeply flawed because of fundamental differences between Denmark and the United States, including Denmark’s high living costs and taxes, a generous social safety net that includes universal health care and a collective bargaining system in which employer associations and unions work together. The fast-food restaurants here are also less profitable than their American counterparts.

“Trying to compare the business and labor practices in Denmark and the U.S. is like comparing apples to autos,” said Steve Caldeira, president of the International Franchise Association, a group based in Washington that promotes franchising and has many fast-food companies as members.

“Denmark is a small country” with a far higher cost of living, Mr. Caldeira said. “Unions dominate, and the employment system revolves around that fact.”

But as Denmark illustrates, companies have managed to adapt in countries that demand a living wage, and economists like Mr. Schmitt see it as a possible model.

Denmark has no minimum-wage law. But Mr. Elofsson’s $20 an hour is the lowest the fast-food industry can pay under an agreement between Denmark’s 3F union, the nation’s largest, and the Danish employers group Horesta, which includes Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks and other restaurant and hotel companies.

By contrast, fast-food wages in the United States are so low that half of the nation’s fast-food workers rely on some form of public assistance, a study from the University of California, Berkeley found. American fast-food workers earn an average of $8.90 an hour.

As a shift manager at a Burger King near Tampa, Fla., Anthony Moore earns $9 an hour, typically working 35 hours a week and taking home around $300 weekly.

“It’s very inadequate,” said Mr. Moore, 26, who supervises 10 workers. His rent is $600 a month, and he often falls behind on his lighting and water bills. A single father, he receives $164 a month in food stamps for his daughters, 5 and 2.

“Sometimes I ask, ‘Do I buy food or do I buy them clothes?’ ” Mr. Moore said. “If I made $20 an hour, I could actually live, instead of dreaming about living.”

Mr. Moore’s daughters receive health care through Medicaid, while he is uninsured because he cannot afford Burger King’s coverage, he said.

“I skip the doctor,” he said, adding that he sometimes goes to work sick because “I can’t miss the money.”

Burger King declined to discuss wages or benefits, saying those decisions were made by its franchise operators. The company said that its “restaurants have provided an entry point into the work force for millions of Americans,” and that the Burger King McLamore Foundation gave some employees emergency financial assistance and college scholarships.

Mr. Schmitt, the economist, acknowledged that it would take some time for the American fast-food industry to adjust to higher wages.

“We would need to phase this in,” said Mr. Schmitt, who is co-editor of the book “Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World.” “We’ve created a low-road economy, and it’s going to take us some time to build up the speed to get onto the high road.”

In Denmark, fast-food workers are guaranteed benefits their American counterparts could only dream of. Under the industry’s collective agreement, there are five weeks’ paid vacation, paid maternity and paternity leave and a pension plan. Workers must be paid overtime for working after 6 p.m. and on Sundays.

Unlike most American fast-food workers, the Danes often get their work schedules four weeks in advance, and employees cannot be sent home early without pay just because business slows.

Given the benefits available, Mr. Elofsson, the Burger King employee in Copenhagen, said he hoped to make his career with the company and work his way up to restaurant manager.

While the Danish industry does not keep data on worker retention, HMSHost Denmark, which runs the fast-food operations at Copenhagen Airport, estimates that 70 percent of the workers at its Burger King and Starbucks franchises stay for more than a year.

By contrast, an internal study done several years ago by McDonald’s found that workers’ average tenure at the company in the United States was nearly eight months, although the National Restaurant Association said American fast-food workers averaged 20 months on the job.

Danish law does not require fast-food companies or their franchisees to adhere to the wages required by the agreement with the 3F union. But they do, because employees and unions pledge in exchange not to engage in strikes, demonstrations or boycotts. “What employers get is peace,” said Peter Lykke Nielsen, the 3F union’s chief negotiator with McDonald’s.

McDonald’s learned this the hard way. When it came to Denmark in the 1980s, it refused to join the employers association or adopt any collectively bargained agreements. Only after nearly a year of raucous, union-led protests did McDonald’s relent.

In interviews, Danish employees of McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks said that even though Denmark had one of the world’s highest costs of living — about 30 percent higher than in the United States — their $20 wage made life affordable.

True, a Big Mac here costs more — $5.60, compared with $4.80 in the United States. But that is a price Danes are willing to pay. “We Danes accept that a burger is expensive, but we also know that working conditions and wages are decent when we eat that burger,” said Soren Kaj Andersen, a University of Copenhagen professor who specializes in labor issues.

Measured in Big Macs, McDonald’s workers in Denmark earn the equivalent of 3.4 Big Macs an hour, while their American counterparts earn 1.8, according to a study by Orley C.

Ashenfelter, a Princeton economics professor, and Stepan Jurajda, an economics professor at Charles University in Prague.

And the Danish restaurants are less profitable. With fast-food wages in the United States so much lower than in Denmark, and the price of Big Macs in the two countries similar, Mr. Ashenfelter said, “It must be that U.S. McDonald’s are far more profitable.” The higher wages and the higher menu prices help explain why there are 16 McDonald’s per million inhabitants in Denmark, but 45 McDonald’s per million in the United States, Mr. Jurajda said.

McDonald’s declined requests for detailed financial data for its restaurants. But it said in a statement that the countries where it operates “have significantly different cost structures, economic environments and competitive frameworks.” The company added that it and its franchise operators “support paying valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace.”

America’s restaurant industry predicts a wave of woe if pay were to jump toward Denmark’s levels. An increase to $15 would “limit employment opportunities” by making fast-food restaurants reluctant to hire, said Scott DeFife, an executive vice president at the National Restaurant Association. “More than doubling the starting wage will dramatically increase costs in an industry that exists on very narrow margins.”

Denmark’s high wages make it hard, though not impossible, to maintain profitability at his restaurants, said Martin Drescher, the general manager of HMSHost Denmark, the airport restaurants operator.

“We have to acknowledge it’s more expensive to operate,” said Mr. Drescher. “But we can still make money out of it — and McDonald’s does, too. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be in Denmark.”

He noted proudly that a full-time Burger King employee made enough to live on. “The company doesn’t get as much profit, but the profit is shared a little differently,” he said.

“We don’t want there to be a big difference between the richest and poorest, because poor people would just get really poor,” Mr. Drescher added. “We don’t want people living on the streets. If that happens, we consider that we as a society have failed.”

[출처 : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/business/international/living-wages-served-in-denmark-fast-food-restaurants.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0]