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[지현경]

Weekly Address: Building Upon the Legacy of Labor Day

연사: Barack Obama

연설일: 2016. 9. 3.

링크: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ855PVL6ew

443 words

1.     Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act : 릴리 레드베터 공정임금법  

Hi everybody.

Before you fire up the barbecue for the long weekend, I want to talk a little bit about the reason we get to celebrate Labor Day — and that's the labor movement that helped build this country and our middle class.

For generations, every time the economy changed, hardworking Americans marched and organized and joined unions to demand not simply a bigger paycheck for themselves, but better conditions and more security for the folks working next to them, too.

Their efforts are why we can enjoy things like the 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, and a minimum wage.

Their efforts are why we can depend on health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and retirement plans.

All of that progress is stamped with the union label.

All of that progress was fueled with a simple belief: that our economy works better when it works for everybody.

That's the spirit that's made the progress of these past seven and a half years possible.

We've rescued our economy from another depression, cut our unemployment rate in half, and unleashed the longest string of total job growth on record.

And we've focused on making sure that the gains of a growing economy don't just flow to a few at the top, but to everybody.

It's why we took action to help millions of workers finally collect the overtime pay they've earned.

It's why I issued a call to raise the minimum wage, and when Congress ignored that call, 18 states and the District of Columbia, plus another 51 cities and counties, went ahead and gave their workers a raise.

It's why the very first bill I signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; why we gave paid sick days to federal contractors; why we've fought for worker safety and the right to organize.

And we've made good progress.

For a few years after the recession, the top one percent did capture almost all income gains.

But that share has been cut by almost half.

Last year, income for everybody else grew at the fastest pace since the 1990s.

And another 20 million Americans know the financial security of health insurance.

I'll be the first to say we've got more work to do in the years ahead.

Now, I know we're in the heat of a more raucous political season than usual.

But we can't get so distracted by the latest bluster that we lose sight of the policies that will actually help working families get ahead.

Because the truth is, that's what's caused some of the frustration that's roiling our politics right now — too many working folks still feel left behind by an economy that's constantly changing.