| Many articles about single employees have been
published in recent years. This page lists some of them, with a short summary and a
link to the site on which the article is published.
If you are aware of other articles, please let us know and we will consider
adding them to this page.
" 'Family' Doesn't Always Mean
Children,"
by Kathleen Madigan,
Special Report for Business Week (1997).
This short commentary discusses "work-family"
programs and how they should not ignore employees without children, including single
workers.
To read the full story, click here.
Single and childless workers
say they're not getting fair share of benefits,
by Joyce Gannon
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1998)
This article quotes a benefits consulting firm which says
"There's a brand new uprising nationally . . . Single employees feel discriminated
against because they can't take advantage of benefits created for the family."
The writer says that companies need to realize the work-life balancing act goes beyond
being a parent.
To read the full story, click here.
Backlash: Why single employees
are angry
by Gilliam Flynn
Personnel Journal Sept 1996, v75, n9, p58(8)
This article discussed the trend of large corporations to
create a "family friendly" workplace by giving extra benefits to workers with
spouses and children. It points out that some of these companies are hearing
complaints from single workers without children who are tired of being asked to: (1) stay
late when others rush to pick up their kids from school or day care, (2) accept less
compensation in terms of benefits; and (3) do last minute travel on the theory they don't
have a life or obligations outside of work.
To read the full story, click here.
New
family definitions reach dependent coverage
by Susanna Duff
Employee Benefit News (1998)
This article talks about a new trend emerging in the
financial industry, one that goes beyond domestic partner benefits. Some banks and
financial institutions are now offering "extended family" benefits. The
company allows an unmarried employee to designate one benefits beneficiary, such as a
domestic partner of either sex or a dependent blood relative under the age of 65.
This helps unmarried workers with domestic partners, but it also helps those without a
partner but who have a close blood relative dependent upon them -- like a sibling or an
adult child who has returned home.
Bank of America started the trend and it has now spread to
Nations Bank, Bank Boston, CitiGroup, Merrill Lynch, Prudential, and other large financial
corporations.
To read the full story, click
here.
The Childless Backlash: Myth or
Fact?
by Dorrit T. Walsh
HR Plaza (2000)
In today's family friendly workplace, people without children
often feel shortchanged when it comes to benefits, access to options such as telecommuting
and flextime, and leeway with time off for personal matters. This article discusses the
problem, quoting human resource experts, and citing surveys showing that the concerns of
workers without children are not being adequately addressed by employers.
To read the full story, click here.
Women rank equal pay as top
work issue
by Cathleen Ferraro
Sacramento Bee (1997)
Ask a working woman what's most important to her on the job
and she'll likely come back with one word. Money. More than 50,000 women responded in 1997
to a mail and telephone survey backed by the AFL-CIO in 1997, the nation's largest labor
organization. Some 94% said equal pay was their top concern at work. That far
eclipsed issues of child care (33%) or elder care (25%).
The AFL-CIO study showed that among the nation's working
women, 57 percent have no children or none living at home. Forty-two percent are
single -- including those who never married, or are separated, widowed or divorced -- and
of those, 71 percent are childless or no longer have children in their custody.
Among married working women, 47 percent are childless or have grown children living on
their own.
To read the entire story, click here.
The Childless Feel Left Out
When Parents Get a Lift
by Kathleen Murray
New York Times News Service (1996)
Many single and childless employees say they are getting
short shrift on benefits. Although some companies have addressed the issue by offering
cafeteria plans, which give employees a set amount of money to spend on a choice of
benefits, many employees say those plans solve only part of the problem.
They are tired of working longer hours, traveling more or otherwise picking up the slack
for colleagues with family obligations. In a 1995 survey of 129 executives by the
Conference Board, nearly half the respondents said parents received more support from
their companies than nonparents did.
In April, 80 percent of employers and employees surveyed by
Personnel Journal, a trade magazine, said single workers without children carried more of
the burden at work than their married colleagues who had children, but their needs got
less attention.
To read the full story, click here.
Indignant Singles in the
Workplace Should Speak Up,
Not Stew Over Benefits
by Lona O'Connor
Philadelphia News (1998)
The author says that "singles versus parents" is an
artificial setup that completely misses the point, and sets one group of workers against
another needlessly. She says the real issue is waking your company up to the fact
that there are a lot of different kinds of workers, and therefore a lot of different ways
to build loyalty by adapting work styles and benefits. If you get locked into the ``war,''
you and your coworkers may miss a golden opportunity to tell your employer what will make
you a happy worker - at a time when your employer is willing to listen.
To read the full story, click here.
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