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Survey: U.S. workplace not family-oriented
Filed under: Just For Moms, Just For Dads, Work Life
The difficulty of balancing work and family is a common strain many parents experience. Apparently, it is more common for parents working in the United States. According to a study by Harvard and McGill Universities, the U.S. lags far behind virtually all wealthy countries with regard to family-oriented workplace policies such as maternity leave, paid sick days and support for breast-feeding.
The study says workplace policies for families in the U.S. are weaker than those of all high-income countries and many middle- and low-income countries. Notably, it says the United States is one of only five countries out of 173 in the survey that does not guarantee some form of paid maternity leave; the others are Lesotho, Liberia, Switzerland and Papua New Guinea.
According to the study, the U.S. fares comparatively well in some areas - such as guaranteeing significantly higher pay for overtime work and ensuring the right to work for all racial and ethnic groups, regardless of gender, age or disability.
"More countries are providing the workplace protections that millions of Americans can only dream of," said the study's lead author, Jody Heymann, founder of the Harvard-based Project on Global Working Families and director of McGill's Institute for Health and Social Policy. "The U.S. has been a proud leader in adopting laws that provide for equal opportunity in the workplace, but our work/family protections are among the worst," Heymann said. "It's time for a change."
As a working parent, I hope that U.S. employers won't wait for it to become law to start examining their policies regarding working parents. I have been fortunate in the recent past to have had such support in my workplace. What about you? Does your employer accommodate your needs as a working parent?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-17-2007 @ 1:18PM
SKL said...Yes, most employers of full-time workers have policies to support working parents. Many are pretty generous. It is unfair to imply that just because the federal law doesn't require them, we don't have them.
That said, there is always room for improvement. Women's advocates in particular should focus more on this issue, which directly affects the majority of women. Instead they focus most of their efforts on their two pet goals, abortion and gay rights, which directly affect only a minority. Women with children are the norm, so let's do what we can to support their needs, in the workplace and otherwise.
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2-17-2007 @ 2:10PM
JYO said...I think you meant Swaziland, not Switzerland.
That being said, I lost my job when I was on bedrest, my 12 weeks of unpaid leave was over two weeks before I delivered. Between the unpaid leave and losing my job now our credit is trashed because we couldn't keep up with all the bills. We blew through what we had saved for my unpaid maternity leave about 3 weeks after our daughter was born.
Now I am having trouble finding a new job because I was in banking, an industry with no tolerance for bad credit in their employees no matter how valid the reason. I've been in the workforce for 20 years and have yet to work anywhere that offered any paid leave.
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2-17-2007 @ 4:37PM
LS said...I agree that there needs to be more "family friendly" policies in the working world, but I get nervous when anyone proposes that the government mandate such policies. Everything the government touches, from welfare to education to social security and beyond is messed up. If they start pushing their way further into the workplace than they already are, it's a setup for disaster.
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2-17-2007 @ 5:04PM
tragickingdom said..."Family friendly" should be just that, I'm childfree and it would be nice to get a paid sick day when I'm taking care of my sick father. It shouldn't only be just for people with children.
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2-18-2007 @ 11:25PM
Heather said...Wow really! ( note sarcasm)
I agree that work should have family sick days that are usable for any family member.
My work doesn't pay us for when kids are sick either, only if we are sick.
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