Journal Article

International Perspectives on Work-Family Policies: Lessons from the World's Most Competitive Economies

Mokomane, Zitha, Heymann, Jody, Earle, Alison

2011

Overview

The United States does not guarantee families a wide range of supportive workplace policies such as paid maternity and paternity leave or paid leave to care for sick children. Proposals to provide such benefits are invariably met with the complaint that the costs would reduce employment and undermine the international competitiveness of American businesses. In this article, Alison Earle, Zitha Mokomane, and Jody Heymann explore whether paid leave and other work-family policies that support children s development exist in countries that are economically competitive and have low unemployment rates. Their data show that the answer is yes. Using indicators of competitiveness gathered by the World Economic Forum, the authors identify fifteen countries, including the United States, that have been among the top twenty countries in competitiveness rankings for at least eight often years. To this group they add China and India, both rising competitors in the global economy. They find that every one of these countries, except the United States, guarantees some form of paid leave for new mothers as well as annual leave. And all but Switzerland and the United States guarantee paid leave for new fathers. The authors perform a similar exercise to identify thirteen advanced countries with consistently low unemployment rates, again including the United States. The majority of these countries provide paid leave for new mothers, paid leave for new fathers, paid leave to care for children's health care needs, breast-feeding breaks, paid vacation leave, and a weekly day of rest. Of these, the United States guarantees only breast-feeding breaks (part of the recently passed health care legislation). The authors' global examination of the most competitive economies as well as the economies with low unemployment rates makes clear that ensuring that all parents are available to care for their children's healthy development does not preclude a country from being highly competitive economically.

• Publisher: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution,Princeton University,Princeton University-Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution
• Subject: Adopted children / Adults / Australia / Austria / Breastfeeding / Breastfeeding & lactation / Canada / Changes / Child / Child care / Child Care - trends / Child Development / Child Health / Child, Preschool / Children / Children & youth / Childrens health / China / Chronic Disease - epidemiology / Chronic Disease - therapy / Clinical outcomes / Competition / Cross-Cultural Comparison / Denmark / Duress / Economic Competition - trends / Economic conditions / Economic depression / Efficiency, Organizational / Employed Parents / Employees / Employers / Employers' liability / Employment / Employment policies / Families & family life / Family leave / Family Leave - trends / Family policy / Family roles / Family Work Relationship / Fathers / Feasibility / Female / Finland / Forecasting / Foreign Countries / Germany / Government employees / Government regulation / Great Depression / Health Care Services / Health education / Health insurance / Health services / Health Services Needs and Demand - trends / Health status / Humans / Iceland / Illnesses / India / Infancy / Infant / Infant mortality / Infant, Newborn / Insurance / Ireland / Japan / Job change / Job Satisfaction / Labor costs / Laws, regulations and rules / Leaves of Absence / Legislation / Liability / Luxembourg / Male / Maternity & paternity leaves / Mexico / Netherlands / Norway / Parent-child relations / Parental leave / Parents / Parents & parenting / Payments / Pediatrics / Peoples Republic of China / Perceptions / Policy making / Pregnancy / Private sector / Productivity / Public finance / Public Policy / Public Policy - trends / Roles / School age children / Singapore / Social security / South Korea / Sweden / Switzerland / Unemployment / Unemployment - trends / Unemployment Rates / United Kingdom / United States / United States of America / Wages & salaries / Women, Working - statistics & numerical data / Work / Work and family / Work Environment / Work Schedule Tolerance / Working conditions / Working hours / Working mothers / Working women / Workplace - statistics & numerical data / Young Children