Business 2006-07-11

American workers are increasingly demanding more time off from their employers. Gerri Willis. She's live in New York with that story and wrap-up of today's action on Wall Street. Hi, Gerri.

Hey, that’s right. Hi, there, Richard. Stocks on Wall Street ended the day mixed after surrendering strong early gains, tech stocks were weak and investors 1 were bracing 2 for the start of second quarter earning season which kicks off with today's aftermarket report, from Dow Components 3 Alcoa. At the close, the Dow added 13 points but the NASDAQ shed 2/3 of a percent. Meanwhile crude oil prices fell 48 cents to settle at $63.61.

It’s summer time and many Americans are taking time off from work to get away from it all. But whether you are jetting off abroad, reclining at the beach or just staying home to recharge, you’re always back at work before you know it. Well this could soon change. US companies are now responding to workers' demands for more time off. Experts say many employees actually want extra vacation days more than they want wage increases. Some of us want both of those things. These days Americans change jobs more frequently and people don't want to wait 5 or so years to rack up additional vacation days.

Well, who wouldn’t mind a couple of extra days. How hard a company is changing the policy here, Gerri, to answer to that?

Well, this is particularly true for small businesses due to heavy competition in the job market. Small companies typically offer just one-week of vacation time during that first year of employment. That increases to about 3 weeks after 7 years, but negotiating vacation days beyond a company's written policies is becoming increasingly common and increasingly successful. A growing number of small businesses now give extra vacation time to make up for a lack of benefits like health insurance.

And here's a potentially important trend taking root, one in five companies now have paid time off banks. Commonly known as PTOs. Now this combines all you sick days with your vacation days and sometimes holidays into one larger pool of days. This option increases your paid time off while companies also benefit because it deters 4 workers from calling in sick just to get a day off.

Hmm, ok, now the next story you have also interesting to me. This is about video games.

Yeah. video game .That is right. Sony has a patent on a software technology that could stop you from playing your video games over at a friend's house.

En?

En, yeah. According to The EOA Time, Sony's technology will prevent people from playing used, rented or borrowed video games in its playstation consoles. Now some customers are worried it could be used in Sony PlayStation 3 which is due out this fall.

Sony was criticized earlier this year, Eray,you might remember for including software on some of its music CDs that installs itself on people's computers to prevent piracy 5.

So are they actually going to officially have a plan using this technology?

Well, they mean tight-lipped about it. It is not unusual for companies to patent a technology and never even use it. But this patent does seem to be aimed at deterring 6 game pri, privacy, piracy, pardon me. Industry experts say the sale of second-hand 7 games is an increasing burden for game publishers, who receive no pre, proceeds from the resales.

Analysts 8 estimate the used video game market is worth about a billion dollars a year. So you can see it's some important dinero there . Back to you, Richard.

It is OK. Thanks Gerri.

Welcome.

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time off :time when you are not at work or in school 休假
wrap-up :Am E a short summary at the end of something,especially a news program 简短的总结
surrender:to give something to someone in authority because you have to 交出,放弃
shed:to get rid of something that is not wanted or is no longer necessary 放弃
recline:to lie or lean in a comfortable position with your back supported by something 舒服地躺在...
rack up :to get a large number or amount of something 获得
take root:扎根,生根
call in sick:打电话请病假
tight-lipped:mainly journalism refusing to comment on something,especially to journalists 守口如瓶
dinero:informal money 钱