Let’s talk about Family Values (and a trivia question)

A little trivia to start off the post:

What does the United States have in common with Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland? 

Besides the obvious fact that all countries contain the letter ‘A’, the answer is that all four, the big ol’ USofA included, are the only ones out of 177 countries worldwide that do not guarantee paid leave and/or a substantial birth payment for parents to care for their newborn babies. 

This and other fun facts are included in a new report that’s being released as we speak, Family Values at Work: It's About Time!. 

Put together by the MultiState Working Families Consortium, the report calls for minimum standards, including paid sick days, expanded family and medical leave, guaranteed flex time for parents, and the right to collective bargaining, to promote more family-friendly workplaces.

Yes, the economy has changed a lot over the last century.  But our labor laws haven’t kept pace (the major labor law in the country, the Fair Labor Standards Act, was written in 1938).  Families are struggling to balance the demands of work and family.  Millions of workers are faced with the daunting task of making the choice between keeping their jobs or caring for their children.

Nearly half (48%) of our nation’s full-time workers lack paid sick days to take a day off to care for themselves or a sick child or parent without fear of losing their jobs.

And while we have the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which is a good step forward, it only covers workers employed by companies with at least 50 employees, leaving more than half of the private sector unprotected.  Not to mention that it’s unpaid leave.  Can you take 12 weeks off without pay?

Further, there's not a single state that makes it illegal for employers to fire a worker who refuses "mandatory overtime".

If we are such a nation of family values, then why don’t we have policies that value our families?