Summary
Politics and Employee Benefits: What to Expect in 1992—Congress went out for the year with barely a whimper, leaving much significant legislation still pending at the end of 1991--a year in which rhetoric was more in evidence than action. This year may bring more of the same, but the dynamics of a presidential election year promise to raise issues to a more visible and audible level.
Single Parent Families, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage—While the traditional family of husband and wife living in one household—either with or without children—remains the most common family type, it has declined as a proportion of all families from 50 percent in 1970 to 39 percent 1991. At the same time, the proportion of families with a single parent has grown from 7 percent to 13 percent. Other family types without children comprise the remaining 48 percent of families. The large majority (85 percent) of single parent families are headed by women. Individuals in these families often live in poverty, and many do not receive adequate health insurance protection from either public or private programs.
Most Americans Think Employers Should Be Required to Provide Family Leave, According to Recent EBRI/Gallup Survey—Three out of four Americans (76 percent) said employers should be required to provide an unpaid leave of absence to employees upon the birth or adoption of a child, with guaranteed reemployment, according to a recent public opinion survey conducted by EBRI and The Gallup Organization, Inc. Individuals most likely to support this view were those aged 18-34 (87 percent), those in professional/managerial positions (83 percent), and those with incomes between $20,000 and $74,999 (78 percent). In a similar survey conducted in 1990, 77 percent of respondents supported such mandated leaves of absence.