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Join me in welcoming Dr. Jody Heymann, professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Arts at McGill University, where she is founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy and founding chair of the Project on Global Working Families. She also is an adjunct associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Heymann has authored and edited more than 150 publications, including Raising the Global Floor and Forgotten Families. She has led the development of a unique graduate and undergraduate multidisciplinary training program that bridges research and policy development with students gaining experience in 18 countries. Also, check out the interactive world legal rights database created by Dr. Heymann and her team.
When it comes to ensuring working families have the bread-and-butter basics, the United States is an outlier, there’s no doubt. For example:
- 177 nations guarantee paid leave for new mothers; the U.S. does not.
- 74 nations guarantee paid leave for new fathers; the U.S. does not.
- 132 nations guarantee breastfeeding breaks at work; the U.S. does not.
- 163 nations guarantee paid sick leave; the U.S. does not.
- 48 nations guarantee paid time off to care for children’s health; the U.S. does not.
- 41 nations provide leave that can be used for child education needs; the U.S. does not.
- 33 nations provide paid leave to care for adult family members; the U.S. does not.
The cost to Americans is profound.
- Every year Americans lose income and homes when they get sick with serious illnesses.
- Restaurant workers, health care providers and co-workers spread disease when they go to work with infectious diseases.
- Infants fall sick at 1.5-5 times the rate when they are not breastfeed—by mothers who have little choice.
For decades, we’ve been hearing none of these issues can be addressed because of the economic cost. The argument has been that if mothers and fathers could afford to care for their newborn children, we’d have fewer jobs; America would be less competitive; it would cost too much. If people with flu stayed home when they were sick, if Americans with cancer didn’t fear losing their job and home when they got sick, it’d cost too much for our country. Well, it turns out not to be true. Some 57 million Americans do not get paid leave, or even sometimes unpaid leave, to stay home sick or to care for sick relatives.
In Raising the Global Floor, a book that reports on 10 years of research carried out at Harvard and McGill, Alison Earle and I report the findings of the largest global study to look at working conditions, how they affect individual men and women and national economies in 190 of the world’s 192 countries.
Can the United States afford to improve working conditions?
- Globally, none of the protections described above are linked with lower levels of economic competitiveness or employment.
- Of the world’s 15 most competitive countries, 14 provide paid sick leave, 13 guarantee paid leave for new mothers, 12 provide paid leave for new fathers, 11 provide paid leave to care for children’s health needs, eight provide paid leave to care for adult family members and seven guarantee breastfeeding breaks.
- The majority of the 13 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries with consistently low unemployment rates provide paid leave for new mothers (12), paid sick leave (11), breastfeeding breaks (9), paid leave for new fathers (9) and paid leave to care for children’s health needs (8).
We can afford the change. What we can’t afford is the status quo.
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Again, welcome Dr. Heymann:
Are there any specific legislation, such as the bills sponsored by Rep. DeLauro, or other policy action, that you think would help move the US closer to the norm for a western industrialized nation?
Thank you for confirming what so many refuse to see.
This shows how far behind the rest of the world the United States is in both health care and health related policy. Canadians have far better health care than the average Americans has, and Canadians have the advantage of these health related policies, which are far better than what Americans have. This leaves those us in the rest of the world astonished at how backward the US is, while supposedly being a “world leader” in everything, if you listen to American hype and propaganda. The US has a lot to learn from other nations.
We’re number one! We’re number one! We’re, er, oh….
One of the best places for the United States to start would be to pass the Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee 7 days of paid sick leave to all working Americans to meet their own health needs and those of their families. This is readily affordable for all companies and yet would make an enormous difference to both the health of Americans and the ability of working women and men to keep their jobs.
Dr Heymann, is the refusal of the US companies to provide these types of support for workers a product of the supposed rugged individualism of the US (more fantasy than not), the fear of the “socialist” aspects, or just the short sighted concentration on the quarterly report?
murphyj87 is certainly correct that Canada offers many protections that the United States doesn’t. In the case of health, this includes universal medical care coverage, and paid sick leave for up to 15 weeks in the case of one’s own serious illness and up to 6 weeks in the case of a family member’s serious illness.
Welcome!
Last night in the SOTU, Pres. Obama spoke about how he “wouldn’t accept the USA ‘falling’ into second place.” I had good laugh (because otherwise I would have cried) about that. It would be “nice” to actually rise up to being in second place.
USA citizens have been hoodwinked into believing in the myth of American exceptionalism. That myth may have been true (not sure) for a short period of time, but it’s sure not true anymore.
Unless or until US citizens wake up out of their collective stupor and start agitating for real changes, I fear we are on an ever downward spiral.
Thanks for coming here to share this info; it is valuable.
- the US, the wealthiest nation on earth, now has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.
The new Fed Chair is the old Fed Chair. Bernanke passed through the Senate 70 to 30. There really should not be any questions left. Obama lobbied for helicopter Ben.
dakine01, that is a good question. While I can’t say why many companies do not offer these basic protections, what we do know is that in Congress, representatives of the business community repeatedly argue that they are unaffordable. They contend that the US will no longer be competitive if Americans have such basic rights as a minimum of paid sick leave or vacation leave, let alone paid family leave. They also argue that many jobs would be lost if such legislation was passed. Our research in Raising the Global Floor makes clear that these contentions are myths. Overwhelmingly, the countries with the lowest unemployment and ranked as the most competitive offer all of these benefits.
Thank you for this post and discussion.
Welcome Dr. Heymann — what’s the status of that bill? Through the House? And is there any consideration of attaching it to the health reform bills?
Why not instead cut employers out of delivering the social safety net and instead the state providesit directly to the all citizens. The employer is forced to comply, as I understand, this is done in France? Same for deliver of medicine to the citizens (hence why the universal health care push). That way there is forced reform of the corporations as way too much of governance has been “privatized.”
As a technical note (and to save yourself a few key strokes) there’s a “Reply” button in the lower right hand of each comment. By clicking “Reply” the commenter name and number you are replying to pre-fills.
If you have refreshed, you have to let the screen finish loading to get the reply to work correctly, however. :})
onitgoes, I completely agree, we would be enormously lucky if the US were to rise soon to second place. Even if the United States passes the Healthy Families Act and guarantees 7 days of paid sick leave, it will still be behind 155 other countries who guarantee more. Even if the Family Medical Leave Act became paid, and all new parents were guaranteed 12 weeks of paid leave, mothers would still fall behind women in 101 countries, who are guaranteed more than 14 weeks of paid leave.
Thank you!
Who’s supporting and which interests are opposing the Healthy Families Act?
My sister is expecting her baby in early March. She has been at home for two months now and after the baby is born will stay on maternity leave for a year while getting 67% of her after-tax salary. After that she will have her old job back, or a similar position. Her own and the baby’s health care is fully covered. She lives in Germany.
Thank you for being here with us, Dr. Heymann.
Of course “they” would claim “these things” unaffordable.
How might the larger narrative of the dire need of economic justice in America be framed, such that the people might come to insist upon meaningful change (a tarnished word, I fear)?
How favorable do suppose Congress itself is towards such “change”?
Aren’t these changes anethema quite as much as “real” change in health care (not insurance)?
For that matter, how favorably do you imagine the President looks upon “these things”?
DW
Some basic needs can certainly best be provided by social insurance, not by companies alone. Paid parental leave and long-term sick leave provide important examples of this. Most countries that give mothers and fathers three or more months of leave and those that provide disability insurance for serious illness do this through a government system. It makes more sense both for the people receiving the benefits and for companies. At the same time, there is a crucial role for companies to play. The only way to ensure that everyone can take a day off from work when they need it because of the flu is to have a requirement that companies provide this. The same is true for vacation or annual leave. In terms of health insurance, it would be wonderful to see that as a national system in the US.
My wife works with the WIC program here in Georgia and the attitude of many of the people who administer the program is not that far from the Lt Gov of South Carolina. It’s a long hard slog to change that.
A large number of both Congressional representatives and Senators have signed on to co-sponsor the Healthy Families Act. The Obama administration has also stated its support. The business lobbies have generally come out in opposition to it as part of opposing most legislated improvements in working conditions. The problem is that the Healthy Families Act is unlikely to move unless representatives and senators hear that it is important to their constituents. If everyone online now wrote to their representative and senators urging them to pass the bill, it would make an enormous difference.
Even though all WIC literature is emphatic in pointing out that it is a nutrition program and not welfare, there is still a stigmata associated with the program. (I worked on a statewide WIC program in NYS a few years ago, testing the application developed by another vendor)
That bad!
So why all the kabuki?
Health Corporations.
American people’s health don’t count only profits.
Why not take a poll of congress critters and senators asking them so they are on the record?
Yea, not many of those folks really care what the literature says.
In these tough economic times, I hope that more people will be vocal about the fact that ensuring that all Americans have these basic protections is essential both to the finances of families and to the country as a whole. Having a baby, getting sick, and having a sick family member are among the leading causes of job loss. Passing legislation to guarantee that all Americans can take paid leave under these circumstances could transform the financial situation of millions of Americans. At the same time, the US economy as a whole loses when people go to work sick and spread disease, when parents are unable to give their children a healthy start, and when women (who disproportionately carry the caregiving burden) can’t participate equally in the workforce. As a result, passing these basic policies would simultaneously strengthen our national economy.
Dr. Heymann, are there reasons given to oppose the kinds of laws you discuss other than economic cost?
We are at a divide though, jody, as a society and as a nation,
Essentially, it is that some people will help others and some will not.
But the “philosophy” behind these views, whether people are seen as essentially decent or as grasping, clawing, and hateful self-centered beings, is the real issue.
I am convinced that our social psychology operates, quite unfortunately, at that level.
It even extends to whether one can imagine that human beings affect their global environment.
The experience in other countries is so starkly different from the United States that it is often hard for them to believe what is happening. I can’t count the number of incredulous responses I have gotten when I have travelled around the world for work and it has come out that the United States, for example, does not guarantee any paid annual or vacation leave. While this is treated as completely impossible politically on Capitol Hill, in the 164 countries where it is a guarantee, people can hardly imagine that the richest country in the world does not ensure any paid time off. This is far from a luxury for the many Americans for whom taking off any time when their children’s school is closed means losing wages–particularly when they can barely afford to keep their homes in months when they are fully paid.
In the case of paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, paid leave for serious illness, and paid annual leave– all guarantees that are common in every region of the world as well as in all of the most economically competitive countries– the only reasons given in opposition are economic, and as it turns out, without grounds. In the case of short-term sick leave, some employers also worry that this leave will be abused/taken when people are not sick. While it is understandable that employers would care that sick leave only be used appropriately, both companies and countries around the world have found ways to help ensure this.
It is amazing, isn’t it? It’s as if people really have nothing to live for but working for money.
While I think we should all care that everyone is guaranteed paid sick leave because we care about what happens to other human beings, even those who are purely self-interested should care that everyone get paid sick leave. Currently, in the absence of any guarantee of paid sick leave, half of Americans go to work sick. When they go to work with influenza, they spread it to their coworkers. When restaurant workers, who commonly lack paid sick leave, go to work with diarrhea, they spread it to everyone who eats in the restaurant–and account for over half of the spread of rotavirus. When elder care providers go to work sick, as many do because they lack paid sick leave, they are rapidly increasing the rates at which our elderly parents are getting sick.
Even if there is paid sick leave, there are those folks who will not take it for any reason. When I was a GI and again as a direct federal employee, I knew multiple folks who bragged about never taking a sick day for any reason (and fed employees do get paid sick leave that can accrue for their entire career)
Of course, what wound up happening was they came to work sick and infected everyone else in the office.
Ah, resorting to sanity and common sense, again, are you?
That’s the way to go.
Thank you, Jody.
;~DW
That myth of “exceptionalism”, doncha know?
In America, the Capital of capitalism, “responsibility” means going to work.
How else can you get a perfect record?
One needs “some” distinction in life, afterall …
;~DW
tap! tap!
Is this thing on?
Where did everyone go?
Dinner?
I stepped away, for just a minute, when I came back …
Poof!
Agreed. I moved to the US seven years ago and I get extremely worried when I think about getting sick. My first thought then is that I would have to go back to get coverage. In fact, when I got my insurance here, the insurance guy told me verbatim “you know, when you get really, really sick, you should go back to Germany.” Verbatim.
I still have a hard time understanding the complete willingness of big part of the populace to submit to this kind of almost self-exploitation and reasoning against ones own interest. I have thought long and hard about what the psychological reasons for such a behavior are and can not, for the life of me, figure it out. It’s not even that health care systems are perfect in other countries, costs bogging down the system isn’t unheard of in Europe either. But the premise is just an entirely different one.
In my many travels to western Europe, I’ve rarely been met with contempt but with something much harder to deal with: pity, from my new friends, that I am an American.
This is astounding.
Everyone needs to pass this information on to others.
American exceptionalism, indeed.
If the governments of other countries pick up the expense of paid parental leave, long-term sick leave and disability payments, I can understand how this country believes it can not afford such “luxuries” (although this country does provide disability payments through SSI, though quite niggardly and certainly not a decent living income). The U.S. budget does not see value in such expenses, as much of the country believes they’re “socialist” and politicians would much rather keep the military/industrial complex in business. The current DOD budget is approximately $700 billion and rises every year. I can’t imagine that a decent length of paid parental leave and long-term sick leave would cost much more than that.
I own a small business and I give my employees sick leave for themselves and members of their immediate family plus at least two weeks of paid vacation per year. I do this not because I’m soft hearted or magnanimous, but because it keeps my employees from being stressed out and bringing infectious illness into my workplace and especially because doing so allows me the opportunity to choose from among the best prospective employees in the marketplace. It’s good business to give employees both a pleasurable working atmosphere and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they won’t have to lose wages or their jobs (and health insurance) in the case of illness. Situations like that present an enormous stress in themselves.
Providing health insurance, however, is becoming more and more of a problem – the rate to cover my employees has increased 40% over the past two years. I’m not going to be able to afford it much longer, and even now it’s caused me to limit raises I could be giving my employees.
Yeah, you do get pity. Right wingers are bowled over when they experience that. Seen it first hand. Their expecting a big argument, but instead only get the impatience of people who fought these battles 100 years ago, and won.
Sorry, “they’re expecting.”
What is this “work” shit anyway? Why should anyone have to “work”? The WORLD OWES US A LIVING! And we should do away with money and then we could all live free and sit around and bang on drums all day! Why can’t I just go to the grocery store and get what I want? Damm capitalist system.
Huh? I think the straw man left with the coat-check girl about an hour ago.
Are you kidding me?
Gerund of the f-word Namibia?
No offense to Namibians, but they didn’t put men on the moon.
Thanks for the perspective.
C