When you look at what many of the rest of the wealthy countries do for families, you really have to wonder about the United States. There just isn’t much apparent value placed on us by society.

Perhaps the worst is that we often lag behind middle and low income countries in what we do for families. Pathetic.

We’re one of 5 countries out of 173 surveyed that don’t guarantee some sort of paid maternity leave, for example. 65 countries even give fathers paternity leave.

While many states do guarantee a woman’s right to breastfeed, the federal government does not. This puts us behind the 107 countries that do.

While the Family and Medical Leave Act does give unpaid sick time, 145 countries offer paid sick time.

Our results are mixed when it comes to overtime. There are no laws putting a maximum on required overtime, but we do require significantly higher pay… at least for those paid hourly. If you’re salaried, that’s just part of what you’re paid for. We also do well in requiring fairness in hiring for minorities.

All in all, it’s not an ideal picture. While I and many other mothers are fortunate enough to be stay at home moms or work at home, not all have that luxury. Many parents need that second income just to scrape by. My neighbors, for example. They have a setup where the husband works during the day, the wife at night. They don’t get much time together, but it’s the way they’ve chosen so they can raise their family without having one income gobbled up by daycare costs.

Will this change anytime soon? Who knows. It would certainly be wonderful to see. More family friendly policies would make it much easier on working parents.

[tags]working parents,United States,U.S. workplace,sick leave,maternity leave[/tags]

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