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May 10, 2006
Do employers take
advantage of single workers?
By Kelly Riddell
Medill News Service
Bill Shift is burnt out. Twenty-six and single, Shift is working 16
hour days for a Chicago-based consulting firm. Traveling five days
out of seven, Shift rarely spends a night at home. In a last ditch
rescue effort he posted his resume on Careerbuilder.com.
"I can't take it anymore," Shift says. "I feel like I travel more
consistently than married people. It's like I have extra free time."
Bill Shift isn't his real name. He agreed to talk about his plight
only on condition of anonymity. But he's not alone. According to a
study conducted by the University of Tulsa, a majority of single
workers say they are not treated as well by their employers as their
married coworkers are.
"We found that singles feel they were expected to do things that
others weren't," says former University of Tulsa psychologist Wendy
Casper. "With more corporations providing childcare and family
oriented events such as picnics and bring-your-child to work day,
some singles felt left out."
Thomas Coleman, executive director and founder of singles advocacy
group Unmarried America, calls the treatment of singles
discrimination.
"The culture of the American workplace seems to be pro-parent,
pro-child and pro-marriage," Coleman says. "Preference is given to
parents, but not the same consideration is given to singles."
Coleman says that although singles comprise about one-half of all
U.S. households, spend more than $1.6 trillion a year, and turn out
to vote in greater numbers than any other demographic, political
establishments and parties still ignore them.
"There needs to be a growing awareness in society to characterize
things and provide benefits that are available to all people--not
just a select few," Coleman says.
Psychologist Bella DePaulo agrees.
An expert in the culture of single life, DePaulo has documented her
findings in a book, "Singled Out: How Singles are Stereotyped,
Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After," which
will be released this fall.
"I get one story after another on my Web site of singles that are
complaining that they are expected to work holidays and that feel
they get scrutinized if they want to take time off," DePaulo says.
"They feel that employers don't value their time as much as a parent
or someone who has a family to go home to."
DePaulo cites employers' health benefits as most discriminatory.
"If you are married, then your spouse can be put on your insurance
plan for half-rate," DePaulo says. "A single person has no
comparable benefits. Insurance alone could amount to a 25 percent
difference in compensation."
DePaulo recommends "cafeteria style" benefits where corporations
would give all employees a cash sum to be spent on the benefits of
their choosing. In this model, single employees could choose, say,
tuition reimbursement and parents, childcare.
Some corporations are catching on.
"Over half of the Fortune 500 companies are now offering domestic
partner benefits," Coleman says. "Hopefully this is indicative of a
starting trend."
Domestic health benefits grant singles the right to add a partner,
child, or friend to their health benefits if they desire--much like
a spouse if they were married.
"There has also been a cultural move towards a 'work-life' balance,"
Coleman says. "Terms like this are more inclusive of singles and
apply to everyone's life, not just the married."
Through her studies, Casper has found that singles' feelings of
inclusion are a large factor in their work productivity and
retention.
"Our first study acknowledged that feelings of discrimination
exist," Casper says, "But what it didn't show us was if these
perceptions affected the work and/or organization in any way."
Bill Shift does not feel any connection to his corporation.
"My current corporate culture is very 'me-centric,'" Shift says. "No
one cares about the better good of the group, client, or company and
everyone is out for themselves."
But single Morgan Williams, who works for Lou Malnatti Inc., feels
differently.
"There has never been a question of whether I have been treated
unfairly as a single," Williams says. "Everyone is treated the same
in my organization. I might do extra work because I don't have
obligations to a family, but I do that voluntarily. My work
environment is very friendly, accepting, and family-like."
Because of contrary opinions like this, "the evidence suggests that
there is not a tremendous backlash with singles' feeling like they
are being discriminated against," Casper says. "What they do mind is
if they feel that they are somewhat not included."
Distribution of equal benefits and the usage of generic terms such
as work-life balance give employees a greater sense of inclusion and
therefore satisfaction, according to DePaulo.
"Employers need to realize that by establishing a family-oriented
workplace they are discriminating a certain sect of people," DePaulo
says. "This division creates two classes of citizens: the married
people who are treated more fairly and the single people who are
not. In an ideal world, everything would be equal."
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