Policies that Work
Posted November 29th, 2007 by Marc and Amy VachonThe Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has released a new report comparing the policies of 30 countries with respect to work/life balance. The OECD report lists Denmark and Iceland as having the most effective public policies and business practices to allow healthy work/life balance – which helps to reduce poverty, promote child development, and enhance gender equality. Next come Finland, France, Norway and Sweden.
In its analysis of specific policies (such as tax and benefit policies, parental leave, childcare, afterschool care) and practices (such as part-time and flexible hours), the OECD gives 5 recommendations that would contribute to effective public spending and policy development strategy:
1. Don’t just give parents money to keep one of them home to care for the kids. This destroys incentives to work, and makes employers biased against hiring women who will be the ones to stay home.
2. Tax/benefit policies should be designed to give both parents financial incentives to work.
3. Single parents should be given quality childcare support and be obliged to work.
4. Parental leave works best when it is short but well-paid. This leave should be designed so that it must be shared by both parents rather than taken only by mothers.
5. Workplaces should be more family-friendly, offering part-time/flexible hours and leave to care for sick children.
While the OECD cautions that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to policy development, it is nice to see that this organization feels the most effective policies are generally those that encourage equality between mothers and fathers so that both can balance their lives and care for their children.
What do you think about these 5 criteria for good work/life balance policies?
3 Comments
The report is only available as a press release at http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3343,en_2649_201185_39699821_1_1_1_1,00.html. It can be purchased as a PDF or paper copy, but I have not done so. It appears that the main audience for the results is society at large, since the work/life policies of the 30 countries are compared against such factors as gender pay gap and child poverty. But I, too, would like to know more details….
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December 3, 2007 at 2:56 pm by SarahI’d like a link to the report. They say these criteria make policies “work best”- for whom? Families, businesses, or governments? Given that all the recommendations you listed are focused on encouraging paid employment, I have to wonder. I work (half-time) and prefer it to being home now, but I wouldn’t have wanted to put my kids in child care as infants, and I know a lot of people (men and women!) who prefer to stay home with their children.
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December 3, 2007 at 1:54 pm by kendraI am a single mother of a 4yr old boy and a 4mnth old girl. I worked to put myself thru lpn nursing school 3 years ago. I currently make $17 an hour. Sounds great, right? I pay $500 a month for a small apt for me and my kids, $300 a month for a modest Honda civic, And the biggie is the $400 every 2 weeks for childcare. This isnt even mentioning Heat, lights, telephone, and heaven knows there is no $ left for groceries. I had to go to a food bank this week to get a little bit of food for us to eat. A church is getting Christmas presents for my kids, because there is absolutely no $$ for gifts in our overpressed budget. I applied for govt assistance, and they all but laughed when they saw my “gross income”. Then I see a girl whom I have known for many years who lives off of free govt assistance with free rent, $600+ a month in food stamps, medicaid for herself and her kids, while I am losing everything. I live in Ohio. I’ve done my civic duty and written my senator, with not even acknowledgement of receipt of my letter. I find this very disturbing that people like me struggle to provide shelter, food, and necessities while our govt hands out $$ to people who abuse this help. It seems like it really doesnt benefit people like me who have been abandoned by the father of our children (who, by the way, is ordered to pay less than $50 a week in child support, and still has only paid 4 payments in 4 years) to go to school and work full time, because they pay more and get NO help. I don’t have family nearby, and cannot get any help, so I am getting ready to be forced to move to another state to move in with my aunt and uncle, because there is just no way I can pay our bills anymore. Please let other single moms know that many of us are in this same situation and our government needs to be forced to see this and deal with it.
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