Workplace Practices - #PowHerTheVote Week #3

Workplace Practices - #PowHerTheVote Week #3

Here’s some news that isn’t really news: American women work outside the home.

If you want to explore this topic in depth, check out this page by the US Department of Labor. It explores the most recent annual averages for selected labor force characteristics of women. https://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/latest_annual_data.htm

But in a nutshell, here are the numbers for American parents – both Moms and Dads – for full and part time work. (FYI, full time is 35 hours or more per week; part time is less than 35 hours.)

Employed parents by full- and part-time status, sex and age of youngest child, 2015 annual averages
Age of youngest child	Percent of total employed
	Mothers		Fathers
	Full-time	Part-time	Full-time	Part-time
under 3 years	72.8	27.2	94.4	5.6
3 to 5 years	74.6	25.4	95.7	4.3
6 to 17 years	77.7	22.3	95.8	4.2
under 18 years	76.0	24.0	95.4	4.6

The conditions under which families work have a lot to do with how (or if) they can manage the work-life balancing act that everyone is subject to. Employers and governments, who regulate employment conditions, have a big impact on how well that balance is achieved.

It is nearly impossible to get through your working life without having to take time off to tend to a personal illness, care for a dependent family member, or provide for the demands of pregnancy and childbirth. The “Father Knows Best” family model of the 1950s hasn’t existed for a very long time, outside of Hollywood. The “traditional family” with a male breadwinner is now the exception, with 7 in 10 mothers working.

Society has changed; the workplace needs to change to meet 21st Century reality. Good and smart companies are changing because they recognize that meeting the needs of their employees creates a better, more loyal and more highly-motivated workforce. But American families can’t wait for the workplace to change organically from the inside.

A handful of states, including New York, have pushed to the head of the class when it comes to guaranteeing Paid Family Leave benefits. In fact, when the new law is fully phased-in, New York employees will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave when caring for an infant, a family member with a serious health condition, or to relieve family pressures when someone is called to active military service.

For those employees who are covered, working NY families shouldn’t have to choose between caring for their loved ones and keeping their paycheck. The next phase of the #PaidFamilyLeave campaign will be to educate workers and employers about the law and create the regulations under which it will operate before full implementation in 2020.

But as is always the case, the new law leaves out too many part-time employees. Many workers – especially Hispanic, low-wage, part-time, immigrant, and service-industry working mothers across the income spectrum - aren’t guaranteed earned paid sick days under federal or NYS law, Filling in these legislative loopholes is still work needing to be done.

Another workplace fairness issue revolves about scheduling. Many part-time workers, especially for low-wages in the service industry, are subject to last-minute schedule changes that complicate child care or transportation arrangements. This combination of factors makes it much harder for mothers to provide for their children, create long-term budgets, save for retirement, and escape the cycle of poverty.

But advocates are pushing for reliable work schedules, both nationally and here in New York. The Workshift coalition of New York-based advocates has launched a national campaign to press large retailers, restaurant chains and other companies to end on-call and last-minute scheduling.

According to them, as many as three in five American workers - about 75 million people - are paid hourly. With a lot of recent job growth in mainly low-wage jobs, these often part-time jobs can be subject to last-minute scheduling practices. Workers in these new economy jobs might work 38 hours one week and 15 the next. That creates huge difficulties in caring for children and getting to work.

The recession of 2008 was particularly hard on these kinds of workers. Around 13 percent of hourly workers in 2001 and 2004 reported an "irregular schedule," for example. After 2009, that number increased to more than 15 percent. The proportion of workers who reported "varying hours" jumped to 29 percent after the recession, from 21 percent before. 

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has made going after lost and stolen wages, particularly for low-wage works, a priority. His office recovered nearly $5.7 million in owed pay and damages for more than 3,300 low-wage workers between Labor Day 2015 and 2016. Since the start of 2012, the AG’s office has recovered nearly $27 million for more than 20,000 workers victimized by wage theft, and levied $2.5 million in penalties against employers who cheat employees out of minimum wage and overtime pay.

And the need for sick leave is a public health crisis in this country. A survey by Wakefield Research found that 69% of working Americans don’t take sick days, even when they’re genuinely ill, because they feel they can’t afford to miss even a day of work. If, course, they even have paid sick days; many American workers don’t. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, 40 percent of private-sector workers and 80% of low-wage workers do not receive any paid sick leave.

A majority of working adults say they go to work when they have a cold or the flu, and at least half of people who work in very public places, like hospitals and restaurants, putting the rest of us at risk. "It's one of the biggest food safety problems that there is, and we've known about it forever," says Kirk Smith, who oversees foodborne outbreak investigations with the Minnesota Department of Health.

The CDC has found that 1 in 5 food service workers has reported working while sick. Adults in low-paying jobs are more likely to go to work ill. The low-wage worker is under pressure from lost wages or loss of employment. 40% of workers--over 51 million--lack access to paid sick days in their current job. Nearly one quarter of adults in the US have been fired or threatened with job loss for taking time off to recover from illness or care for a sick loved one. This lack of uniform sick leave laws puts all of us at risk.

So, ask the candidates for office in the elections you will be deciding this November about their stand on paid family leave, workplace scheduling and paid sick leave. See if their economic priorities match yours before you enter the voting booth!

Stay in touch with all the important economic security issues this fall as we #PowHerTheVote. Learn more & sign up at http://www.powherny.org/powher-the-vote/.