Children First for Oregon

Work and family: Big bucks not needed to be family-friendly

By Susan Nielsen, The Oregonian
February 21, 2010, 7:52AM

Many companies that shine in the rankings of Oregon’s favorite employers provide a plush array of family-friendly benefits, plus occasional extras like free car repair or massage therapy.
Such generosity is hard to fathom in this economy, where not getting laid off is the new perk. Yet it’s still possible to be family-friendly, even for companies with tight budgets and lower-income workers. One key, as national and state data suggest, is to minimize unnecessary conflicts between work and home.
“What I observe is that companies that provide flexible workplaces definitely do a lot better” in terms of employee morale, says Brandon Sawyer, research editor for Oregon Business magazine and project manager for its annual ranking of Oregon’s top 100 employers.
That’s true not just of big banks and law firms, Sawyer adds, but also of small businesses. Companies that can’t afford to offer premium benefits can engender loyalty in other ways, sometimes by simply working with employees to “allow the job to fit into the employee’s life,” as Sawyer puts it.
A groundbreaking national study, released last month by the Center for WorkLife Law and the Center for American Progress, helps explain the challenge. This study looked at lower-income workers, middle-class workers and professional-managerial workers as three distinct groups with overlapping obstacles.
For example, lower-income workers are far more likely to have unpredictable shifts, making child care difficult. About three-quarters of them don’t get paid sick time, not even one day a year. Professional-managerial types typically get paid sick days, yet they’re often expected to work 50-plus hours, making their time left for children or elderly parents scarce.
As for middle-income people, they’re called the “missing middle” for a reason. They earn too much to qualify for child care subsidies but not enough to afford high-quality child care. They face similar demands as their better-paid managers, yet they have less job flexibility and smaller savings accounts.
Workers in all three categories would benefit from more family-friendly business practices.