Diverse forces are focusing unusual attention on ADP (ADP,Fortune 500), the company that administers corporate payrolls covering 16% of all private sector workers in the U.S. With jobs in the news, the company's monthly employment report moves markets. The Affordable Care Act makes employers aware of exactly how many full-time and part-time workers they have -- or want -- under the law's complex definitions. The historic financial uncertainty creates especially interesting tension for the four companies (ADP, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft) that still hold triple-A credit ratings. ADP's CFO, Jan Siegmund, talked recently with Fortune's Geoff Colvin about the rise in low-paying jobs, whether being triple-A is still worthwhile, getting value from endless data, and much else. Edited excerpts:
ADP正在吸引多方大量关注。ADP是一家全球知名的人力资源和HR业务流程外包解决方案提供商，管理着美国16%的私企员工的工资单。由于目前媒体对就业率的关注，这家公司每个月出具的就业报告都会引起市场的反应。奥巴马政府推出的《平价医保法》以其严格的规定终于迫使雇主们开始认真统计自己到底雇佣了多少员工，或者说需要雇佣多少全职和兼职员工。在眼下这个历史性的金融震荡时期，美国硕果仅存的四家3A评级公司【ADP、埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）、强生（Johnson & Johnson）、微软（Microsoft）】面临着更紧张的压力。ADP财务总监詹•西格蒙德近日与《财富》杂志的吉奥夫•科尔文谈到了低薪工作的兴起，做一家3A评级的企业是否值得，如何从大量数据中获得价值，以及其它多个话题。下面是采访实录节选：
Q: Jobs are a very hot topic, and you have exclusive access to a trove of data from 600,000 employers. What's it telling you about the state of employment in the U.S.?
问：就业是个非常热门的话题，而你有一个独一无二的渠道，可以获得60万美国雇主的数据。通过这些数据，你对美国的就业情况有何感想？
A: Unfortunately, for the last three to four months we've seen a slowing of employment growth. We believe the tax-rate changes had an impact. Anticipation of health care reform may impact hiring decisions, and the reemergence of payroll taxes may also.
答：很不幸，从过去三到四个月来看，我们发现美国的就业增速正在放缓。我们相信税率的调整产生了一些影响。医疗改革的介入可能会影响招聘决策，再度征收工资税可能也会影响招聘决策。
Many of your clients are small employers who are not well prepared to deal with the Affordable Care Act. What concerns are you hearing from them?
问：你的客户里有很多都是小企业主，他们可能还没有充分准备好应对《平价医保法》。据你了解，他们有哪些担心？
Employers with fewer than 50 employees don't have to fear anything because they're not required to offer health care coverage. What we see anecdotally is that companies right at the edge of 50 do have concerns. We see it also in the hiring numbers -- hiring was particularly slow in the segment of 30 to 50 employees. We don't publish the data, but we feel there may be a trend.
答：员工人数少于50人的企业完全没必要担心，因为这项法案并不要求他们缴纳医保。不过我们偶有发现，有些正好招聘了50人左右的企业的确有一些担忧。在招聘人数上也能看出这一点——规模在30至50人之间的企业招聘增幅明显放缓了。我们不会公布数据，但我们认为这可能是一种趋势。
The training sessions we offer our clients around the Affordable Care Act are the highest attended ever in the history of anything we've offered. The government regulations that are coming out make the payroll system the system of record, so it's a natural thing for us to be in the center of the discussion.
我们还针对《平价医保法》为客户开了培训会，结果这几次培训会的参会人数是我们公司有史以来最多的。即将出台的政府规定将使新的薪酬系统由于其特殊性而载入史册，所以我们变成人们讨论的焦点也是自然的事情。
I've noticed that many small employers don't realize that their employment levels this year will establish whether they're subject to the Affordable Care Act next year, so how many people they're employing for how many hours right now will be critically important.
问：我发现很多小企业主并没有意识到，今年他们的招聘水平会决定他们明年会不会被纳入《平价医保法》的范畴，所以他们今年招聘多少人，工作多少小时，将是十分重要的。
Exactly right. How do you calculate part-time workers? It's more complicated than one thinks. Then if you think about reporting requirements to the health care exchanges, eligibility confirmation, wage-level verification, W-2s to include premium valuations in your annual reporting, special notices, penalty submissions, and so forth -- it's an endless list of very mundane things that have to be done where we hope we can offer best services.
答：非常正确。政府是怎样统计兼职工人的？这个问题比人们想象的要复杂。包括缴纳医保、资格复审、工资水平认证、W2表格（全职工作者的报税表）、特殊事项、罚金缴纳等各种事项都有填报要求。它意味着大量烦琐的工作，而我们正是要在这个领域提供最好的服务。
In certain industries -- hospitality, restaurants, and, somewhat ironically, even health care -- a lot of operators have many part-time employees and may be right at that threshold of 30 to 50 employees. They're really concerned about the Affordable Care Act. What impact do you see it having on them?
问：在有些行业，比如旅店、餐饮业甚至是医疗护理行业，都有很多从业者雇佣了很多兼职员工，有些企业正好是在30人到50人的门槛上。他们非常关注《平价医保法》。你认为这项法案会对他们产生哪些影响？
We've analyzed this specific topic in quite some detail. When you look at the spread between part-time workers and full-time workers in particular industries like hospitality and travel, and health care to some degree, those companies will face significant increases in their health care costs. They either have not offered health care before or are worried that part-time workers are becoming eligible for health care. We're working very hard to create systems so that an HR operation can manage those costs and make the right decisions to contain the future impact of increased benefit costs.
我们仔细研究了这个问题。如果你看看兼职工人和全职工人在旅馆、餐饮和医疗护理业的分布，你会发现这些企业的医保成本将面临显著增加的情况。他们要么之前从来没有提供过医保，要么就是担心兼职工人也会获得医保资格。我们正在努力建立一套系统，使HR部门可以管理这些成本，同时做出正确的决策，把未来这些福利成本增加所带来的影响也考虑进去。
What trends are you seeing in overall U.S. pay levels?
问：你认为美国的总体工资水平会出现怎样的趋势？
We observe in our data that a vast number of the jobs created have been in jobs below $25,000. Job growth in the low-income category is particularly strong, and much more muted in the categories above $50,000. It's really quite remarkable to see the shift in income distribution.
答：我们从数据中发现，大量的新工作都是年薪在25,000美元以下的工作。低收入领域的就业增长尤其强势，但是在年薪50,000美元以上的领域，就业增长率就明显趋缓。收入分配格局的这种转变非常值得注意。
A lot of ADP's profit comes from float and investing it, so you focus on interest rates. What's your sense of where they're going?
问：ADP的很多利润来自浮存金以及对它的投资，那么如果你也关注利率的话，你认为利率的走向会是怎样的？
ADP does have a big float business. We collect monies for payrolls a few days before disbursement, and it takes a while to distribute the monies. On average, we have about $22 billion of client fund money on our balance sheet, which we invest carefully, and hence we have a dependence on interest rates. We take forward-looking yield curves as our indicator. We don't anticipate any interest rate movements in the medium-term future, so we are working in a constant low interest rate environment.
ADP的确有很大的浮存金业务。从我们收到各个企业付来的工资款，到把这笔钱发到个人手上，中间有几天的时间差，要分发这些钱也需要些时间。平均来说，我们的账本上有220亿美元客户的钱，我们很小心地用这笔钱进行投资，因此我们对利率也有依赖性。我们采用一个前瞻性的收益曲线作为指标，我们不参与中期的任何利率变动，所以我们一直是在一个低利率的环境中操作。
For a long time to come?
问：未来的很长时间都会是这样吗？
For a long time in the U.S., meaning two years or so.
答：在美国，很长时间就意味着两年左右。
ADP is one of the four remaining U.S. companies with a triple-A credit rating. The difference in credit costs between being triple-A and being one notch below is not great, and ADP is not a hugely capital-intensive company. How important is it to be triple-A in today's environment?
问：ADP是美国国内硕果仅存的四家3A评级企业之一。做一家3A评级企业和做一家信用评级稍低一点的企业相比，信用成本的差别不是很大，ADP也不是一家大型的资本密集型企业。在今天的环境中，做一家3A评级企业的意义是什么？
We are the smallest of the four triple-A-rated industrial companies and view it as a testament to the strength of our business model. We believe it signals to investors and our shareholders the stability of the business, the high entry barriers, and the prospects of the company. For our clients, it's also important because we collect their money to pay their employees, and knowing that they're with a company that is a better credit risk than the U.S. I believe is an advantage. I know our sales force uses that argument every day.
答：我们是目前美国四家3A评级企业中规模最小的一家，我们把3A评价看做对公司业务实力的验证。我们相信它会让投资者和我们的股东看到公司业务的稳定性，看到一个很高的准入门槛，看到我们公司的前景。对于客户来说也很重要，因为我们是从他们那里收钱再付给他们员工，如果他们知道他们的合作伙伴信用更好，肯定会更加放心，所以我相信这是一个优势。我知道我们的销售团队每天都会提起这一点。
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