Working week mounts for moms
American mothers who also work outside the home are more likely to work long office hours than women without children, according to a survey released last week by the AFL-CIO. The US labor federation found that 68 percent of married working mothers put in 40 or more hours a week at their jobs, compared with 60 percent of women without children.
Mothers with jobs outside the home are also as likely as childless women to work nights or weekends, and to work different schedules from those of their husbands, the survey of nearly 20,000 American women found. Other survey findings:
Twenty-eight percent of working mothers work nontraditional hours and 40 percent work a different schedule from those of their spouses or partners.
Sixty-three percent of working women are on the job 40 hours a week or more; 30 percent work 20 to 39 hours, and only 7 percent work less than 20 hours a week.
Sixty-nine percent of working women listed healthcare as the top priority for laws affecting the workplace, an 11-point increase from a similar AFL-CIO survey two years ago. Healthcare was followed by pensions and Social Security, affirmative action, and equal pay.
