USA, USA, USA, USA!
The typical U.S. worker puts in 1,804 hours at work each year, 135 hours more than the typical British worker, 240 hours (or six full-time weeks) more than the average French worker, and 370 hours (or nine full-time weeks) more than the typical German. The Conference Board's magazine points out that the trend toward increased work demands "has begun to reverse the two-century-old industrial paradigm of equating progress with increased leisure." None of this is good for our family relations. Middle-class couples in the United States, taking both spouses together, are working 520 hours (13 full-time weeks) more a year than such couples worked in the 1980s. Little wonder that the Families and Work Institute found in 2004 that 67 percent of working parents say they don't have enough time with their children, and 62 percent say they don't have enough time with their spouses.
the United States is the only industrial nation that doesn't guarantee its workers any paid vacation at all_which explains why, amazing as it may sound, one in four workers in the private sector doesn't receive any. In the 27 nations of the European Union, by contrast, workers are guaranteed at least four weeks off. (In France, most receive six weeks.) The United States is also the only industrial nation that doesn't guarantee paid sick days to its workers, and as a result, nearly 60 million workers_43 percent of middle-class workers and 77 percent of low-wage workers_don't get any, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. (The Family and Medical Leave Act allows for 12 unpaid weeks off if an employee_of a company with 50 or more workers_is sick or has to care for a spouse, child, or parent.)
According to a study of 173 nations worldwide, the United States is one of just four that does not provide paid maternity leave. The others are Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea. That's not the usual company we keep. (In Britain, women receive 39 weeks paid maternity leave.) It pains me how often I hear women in low-wage jobs saying that financial pressures pushed them to return to work just two weeks after giving birth. Or stories like the one of a cashier at a discount store in Brooklyn, N.Y., who told me she was fired because she took two days off to care for her flu-stricken daughter.
WE'RE #1, WE'RE #1, WE'RE #1.....I'm just not sure at what
The typical U.S. worker puts in 1,804 hours at work each year, 135 hours more than the typical British worker, 240 hours (or six full-time weeks) more than the average French worker, and 370 hours (or nine full-time weeks) more than the typical German. The Conference Board's magazine points out that the trend toward increased work demands "has begun to reverse the two-century-old industrial paradigm of equating progress with increased leisure." None of this is good for our family relations. Middle-class couples in the United States, taking both spouses together, are working 520 hours (13 full-time weeks) more a year than such couples worked in the 1980s. Little wonder that the Families and Work Institute found in 2004 that 67 percent of working parents say they don't have enough time with their children, and 62 percent say they don't have enough time with their spouses.
the United States is the only industrial nation that doesn't guarantee its workers any paid vacation at all_which explains why, amazing as it may sound, one in four workers in the private sector doesn't receive any. In the 27 nations of the European Union, by contrast, workers are guaranteed at least four weeks off. (In France, most receive six weeks.) The United States is also the only industrial nation that doesn't guarantee paid sick days to its workers, and as a result, nearly 60 million workers_43 percent of middle-class workers and 77 percent of low-wage workers_don't get any, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. (The Family and Medical Leave Act allows for 12 unpaid weeks off if an employee_of a company with 50 or more workers_is sick or has to care for a spouse, child, or parent.)
According to a study of 173 nations worldwide, the United States is one of just four that does not provide paid maternity leave. The others are Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea. That's not the usual company we keep. (In Britain, women receive 39 weeks paid maternity leave.) It pains me how often I hear women in low-wage jobs saying that financial pressures pushed them to return to work just two weeks after giving birth. Or stories like the one of a cashier at a discount store in Brooklyn, N.Y., who told me she was fired because she took two days off to care for her flu-stricken daughter.
WE'RE #1, WE'RE #1, WE'RE #1.....I'm just not sure at what