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THE SENATE |
S.C.R. NO. |
130 |
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TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003 |
S.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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RESOLUTION
ESTABLISHING AN AWARDS PROGRAM TO RECOGNIZE BUSINESSES WITH PARENT-FRIENDLY POLICIES.
WHEREAS, to compete in today's global economy, employers are looking for ways to be more efficient; and
WHEREAS, the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute reports that the United States now has the longest annual average hours of work in the industrialized world, with more than seventy per cent of American workers working forty or more hours a week in 1996, compared with fourteen per cent of workers in Germany and less than eight per cent of workers in the Netherlands; and
WHEREAS, a 2001 study by the Families and Work Institute found that fifty-one per cent of employees who somewhat or strongly disagree that they "have the flexibility in their work time to manage their personal and family responsibilities" report high levels of feeling overworked, compared with only twenty-nine per cent of those who somewhat or strongly agree with the statement; and
WHEREAS, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor and Child Care Resources, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, parents of young children are in the workforce in record numbers: seventy-five per cent of mothers with children under six and fifty-nine per cent of mothers with children under three work; and
WHEREAS, balancing work and family is not just a women's issue, as more than ninety per cent of fathers with children under eighteen are in the workforce; and
WHEREAS, nationally, single fathers now head 1.5 million households, compared to just 570,000 in 1973; and
WHEREAS, Hawaii has a high percentage of two-wage earner families, and a particularly high number of these families include school-age children; and
WHEREAS, these working parents have a difficult time balancing their schedules to tend to their family needs; and
WHEREAS, as working parents can attest, child care concerns do not end once children are old enough to go to school, as a parent who is employed full time can be away from home an average of 2,400 hours a year, while children spend less than half of that time in school; and
WHEREAS, in response to this problem, many employers are implementing a variety of parent-friendly workplace policies, some of which are relatively inexpensive for employers to implement; and
WHEREAS, parent-friendly policies can include:
(1) Providing information and referral to community resources and agencies;
(2) Sponsoring parenting/child care seminars for employees on work time;
(3) Offering flex-time, job sharing and part-time employment options;
(4) Allowing employees to use sick leave when they must stay home to care for a sick child;
(5) Providing paid time-off for parents to attend to matters involving the education or health of their children, including attending parent-teacher conferences and other school or health-related meetings or activities that impact a child's well-being;
(6) Providing financial assistance through dependent care spending assistance plans, flexible benefit plans, child care vouchers, or a child care vendor plan;
(7) Creating and supporting services, including providing or supporting on-site or near-site child care, back-up or sick child care, night/weekend child care, or holiday/school break/respite care; and
(8) Offering breastfeeding support policies in the workplace; and
WHEREAS, parent-friendly policies make bottom line sense, by creating a more committed and productive workforce, reducing absenteeism, and lowering turnover; and
WHEREAS, among the benefits that employers receive from parent-friendly policies are: improved retention and recruitment of trained employees; increased employee morale, productivity, motivation, and commitment; better customer service; and cost savings in human resources recruitment and training expenses, which contribute to improved competitiveness and increased profitability; and
WHEREAS, the family constitutes the basic unit of society, children represent the future of our State and society, and government policies should encourage and recognize the involvement and contributions of both parents in the successful upbringing of their children and other family and caregiving responsibilities; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Legislature hereby establishes an awards program to recognize businesses with parent-friendly policies; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall appoint designees to develop, coordinate, and implement the awards program; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Report Title:
Family-Friendly Business Awards Program