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."