US seen lagging on family benefits

The United States lags the world in providing paid time off for illness, maternity leave, vacations, and other benefits that are critical for working families.

The Project on Global Working Families at Harvard University yesterday released the first comprehensive report comparing government policies that guarantee employee benefits in this country with those in more than 100 nations. It found that a lack of federal support for workers who care for children and elderly family members means the United States falls short of government protections available in other industrialized countries such as Germany and in less developed countries from Botswana to El Salvador.

The US government, for example, does not require employers to provide paid time off for illness. As a result, only half of American workers receive sick time; 66 million go without it, other studies show. In contrast, 139 countries require paid time off for short- or long-term illness or both, including Albania, Denmark, Greece, Kenya, and Nepal, according to the Harvard study. These countries either mandate employers provide the coverage or offer government programs to ensure ill workers are paid. Most countries -- 116 -- cover 10 days or more.

''While we think of the US as a leader in many fields, we are enormously behind on every single kind of measure protecting working families," said Jody Heymann, the project's director and an associate professor in the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School.

US policy failures affect not only those in the lowest-wage jobs but also middle-class families, she said.

''The majority of the middle class can't count on paid parental leave when they need it, paid sick leave when they need it, having the ability to address the sick needs of children, elderly parents or other family members," Heymann said.

Yet, income differences exist, she said. ''The middle class is worse off than the affluent, and the poor are worse off than the middle class."

Neil Trautwein, assistant vice president for human resource policy for the National Association of Manufacturers, said government mandates to provide benefits reduce US employers' ability to hire, create bureaucratic costly red tape, and foster abuse of benefits. It is better, he said, to allow employers to design their benefits, which they are pressured to do if they are to attract and retain qualified workers.

Manufacturers have ''generous benefits," he said, but ''it's still hard to comply with dictates from Washington."

The Harvard study found the United States falls behind Europe in mandating benefits. Robert Rector, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, argued that European working families, because they pay higher taxes, are worse off than Americans.

''It doesn't really do families that much good to take away from them in taxes and then give back to them," he said.

The study found at least 37 countries have policies specifying paid leave for parents of sick children, including France, Germany, Hungary, El Salvador, Vietnam, and South Africa. Congress in 1993 passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, requiring employers to give workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for family illness or maternity leave. But Heymann said the FMLA is not enough because it does not provide paid time and it can be used only for severe illness.

This week, Democrats Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut introduced legislation expanding paid sick time. The bill would guarantee US employees seven days of annual paid leave for their own or family medical needs.

Currently, said Heymann, who supports the bill, ''when you're hospitalized, you get unpaid leave, but when your 1-year-old has a fever of 102 and can't go to child care, you're not covered."

Heymann said that while US employers may provide benefits, there are gaps in coverage. About 79 percent of private-industry employers in the United States give paid vacations, according to federal data. But Heymann said many provide vacations to only a segment of workers and may exclude part-time or contract workers. In contrast to 90 other countries, the United States does not mandate paid leave or vacations.

The amount of vacations available ''is very much a family issue," she said. People use vacation to meet with teachers, help children with learning disabilities, or find nursing facilities or medical care for elderly parents, she said.

The United States does not guarantee paid leave to mothers. In contrast, 168 countries have legislation ensuring paid maternity leave, and nearly 50 provide 12 to 13 weeks paid.

''What stunned me is the United States has been behind on maternity leave and it's fallen further behind," she said.

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.