U.S. Behind In Helping Working Families

The White House today held a “Summit on Working Families.”  We lag behind Western Europe in providing benefits for working mothers and fathers.  But doesn’t the Western European system cost too much, you ask?  Jonathan Cohn answers:

The data, however, tell a more complicated story. Policies that allow parents to spend more time with young children and get better day care have clear, quantifiable costs. They also have clear, quantifiable benefits—not just in the form of better child and maternal health, but also in the form of better retention and possibly higher productivity.  As a matter of fact, there’s reason to think that America’s retrograde treatment of working families doesn’t help the economy at all. It might actually be hurting it.

There are a lot of policy options that could improve the life of working parents, starting with paid parental leave (for both mothers and fathers).   Hopefully, today is a small start toward this.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.