Family Leave

Before passing Rep. Pat Schroeder’s (D-Colo.) Family and Medical Leave Act, Congress should take a close look at the European experience with this high-cost mandated benefit. There, mandated family-leave laws have forced business owners to hire women of child-bearing age in part-time rather than full-time positions to avoid paying this costly benefit.

In the five industrialized European countries that require paid or partially paid leave for mothers, between 1973 and 1983, growth in full-time employment of women was flat or negative while part-time employment for women increased dramatically (more than 104% in France alone).

In the United States, which had no such law, full-time employment for women grew by more than 36% in the same period. No individual can enjoy major career achievements if he or she is relegated to part-time employment.

There is no such a thing as a free lunch or a free benefit--and family leave would be particularly costly for small-business owners who do not have the ability to shift around workers in a large work force.

The federal government has wisely left employment benefits, such as vacation time, insurance and pensions, as matters to be negotiated between employee and employer. Family leave should also be negotiated, not a required, benefit.

MARTYN HOPPER

Los Angeles

Hopper is state director of the National Federation of Independent Business/California.