Work-Family Life

Thursday, June 21, 2007 10:48:51 AM

I was listening to GMA this morning and heard a very familiar-sounding story. Mike heard it too and agreed that I had blogged about it before it made it to GMA, so maybe they are doing research on my blog. hahaha http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SpecialSeries/story?id=3301983 Today, Congress will hear about a battle that goes on inside millions of American homes: the struggle to balance work and family while also making ends meet. The hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee is the first step in revisiting U.S. policies on work and family. The subcommittee is considering bills on an expansion of family and medical leave, mandatory sick leave and a measure that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect a woman's right to breast-feed. In roughly 80 percent of two-parent families in the country, both parents have jobs. But the United States doesn't make it easy to juggle work and home. A recent Harvard-McGill study found that only four of 170 countries surveyed did not require paid leave for new mothers: Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland -- and the United States. The study also found that 145 countries provided paid sick days. The United States requires only unpaid family and medical leave, and not all workers are covered. I don't think that it is going to do anything really, but it is nice to hear the same citations from the ladies of GMA. :)