The United States lags far behind other nations, and not just industrial nations, in promoting work-and-family health, a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health says.

And those deficits, in everything from child care to maintaining independence of the elderly, have long-range and large economic and social impacts, the study's leader adds.

The study of work and family issues, covering 168 countries, drew favorable comments from AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. "It lays bare just how far behind the U.S. is when it comes to most basic work and family issues, like paid parental leave" for bearing children, he said.

"Working families are deeply concerned about how to balance work and home, and this study should raise alarm bells...about how far our nation needs to come to meet their needs," Sweeney added in a statement.

Key study findings included:

* More than 160 other countries offer paid leave to women for childbirth--some for as long as a year. One exception, Australia offers a year of unpaid leave, while 45 nations have paid paternity leave, too. The U.S. offers 12 weeks of unpaid family leave for childbirth to women who work for larger firms--only half of working women.
* At least 96 nations mandate that workers get paid annual leave (vacation). The U.S. does not mandate it.
* Some 139 countries mandate paid sick leave, with 117 saying it must last at least a week. The U.S. does not.

Jody Heymann, the Harvard associate professor who directed the project, said implications are vast for workers and their families, and for society as a whole.

"Because we don't address early education, the school year and after-school time, there is an effect on our standing globally to compete," she told Press Associates.

"This is a leading cause of job loss for parents, who have to give up their jobs to take care of a sick child," she adds. That costs families and firms money, as firms must find, hire and train new workers.

Heymann's study also found other costs of U.S. failure to integrate work and family needs, including:

* A 36 percent increase in job losses among lower-wage mothers when their children had health problems.
* When parents must work at night and cannot stay home evenings to take care of and work with their children, the kids are 17 times more likely to have problems in school, and 17 percent more likely to score poorly on standardized math tests.

The lack of home-based care for the elderly is another area where the U.S. lags behind most of the world. That also has an economic impact, Heymann said. If families care for the elderly, without support, their income drops. But if older Americans who need care are instead put in nursing homes, the cost to society rises.

"There are cost savings when people can stay home enough to keep their elderly parents at home," she adds.

The U.S. could start solving those problems on a policy level, Heymann said, and raising its ranking among world nations on work and family issues.

One move would be to approve legislation mandating paid maternity and paternity leave, introduced June 17 by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. They want to give workers a week of paid sick leave per year. Business, led by the Chamber of Commerce, opposes the measure. And it recently sent comments to the White House Office of Regulatory Affairs demanding weakening of present rules governing unpaid family and medical leave.

Another measure to solve the problems would be to devote more funds to early childhood education, where Heymann noted the U.S. lags far behind other nations in resources. "We are 91st in student-staff ratios on that, and 39th--tied with Ecuador and Suriname--on enrollment."

That's even though years of evidence have shown that early childhood learning is the most vital for future educational progress, she noted.

Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc. Used by permission.

For more information
The Harvard study is found at www.hsph.harvard.edu/globalworkingfamilies/