Happy Mother's Day? It depends

Half a century after Meir left office, work-life balance continues to trouble nearly one-third (32 per cent) of Canadians, who told Statistics Canada in a February report that work interferes with their family life.

- DAVID OLIVE

For working mothers, balancing time spent at work and on child care can be especially fraught.

The good news is that employers are gradually coming to recognize the distinct needs of the working mothers they employ.

In recent years, enlightened employers have adopted flexible work schedules and have begun offering workers more paid time away from work to deal with emergencies at home.

They have also begun to cover some of the expense of fertility procedures. They provide counselling for mothers transitioning back to the workplace from maternity leave. And some now cover treatment of postpartum depression with mental-health policies separate from general health benefits.

But employers who provide a full suite of assistance to prospective moms and working mothers remain in the minority. And there's the gender pay gap, which is wider in Canada than in many industrialized countries.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada's 17.1per-cent gender pay gap is wider than that of the OECD average (12.1 per cent) and the European Union average (10.8 per cent). The U.S. gap is 17 per cent.

There is less transparency around pay in Canada than in many countries, and that works powerfully against pay equity.

While inadequate compensation is an abiding concern for workers, issues beyond pay are also determining factors in the happiness or lack of it in an employee's day-today work. And they enhance or inhibit an employer's ability to attract and retain talent.