Wednesday, February 25, 2009

News You Can Use: Looking out for the little guy

Providing personal and financial relief to working families is a concept that's grown in popularity, from President Obama on down -- even paving the way for several state mandates regarding work-life benefits like paid sick and family leave.

However, small businesses have unique concerns about such mandates and other legislative efforts to help working families, and to help policymakers better understand the small business perspective, the Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College has released a new research mini-brief, "Work-Family Information on Small Businesses."

The mini-brief summarizes the small business viewpoint on work-family legislation, underscoring both the concerns of and benefits to small businesses. The mini-brief also provides statistics, suggested readings, and websites with more information.

“Small businesses are often lumped together with all businesses, and their unique strengths and limitations are not commonly recognized,” comments Julie Schwartz Weber, author of the mini-brief and Sloan Network policy specialist. “With 80% of all U.S. businesses having 20 or fewer employees, it is vital that legislators and advocates have a clear picture of how small businesses approach work and family issues. These new resources on small businesses are intended to provide that perspective.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for sharing news of our latest research mini-brief, "Work-Family Information on Small Businesses" with your blog readers. For those seeking additional statistics, overviews and briefs, or links on this same subject, please visit our topic page: Small Business and Work-Family, at: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/topic.php?id=43. Also, designed just for workplace practitioners, look at our one page summaries on work-family issues, at: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/template.php?name=pubs_ews.