The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 13

-fm -a The Modesto Bee How to reach us: Business News 578-2336 Monday April 26 1993 B-5 Business programs growing at firms lot of companies realize the need for more of these programs but less than 50 to a hundred are really making a Brad Googins director Boston Center on Work and Family Caroline Winkler finds that she can spend time with her Knight-Ridder Newspapers family and work too By NANCY RYAN Chicago Tribune CHICAGO Since joining Helene Curtis Industries Inc in 1985 Caroline Winkler has been promoted four times Today as a tax director one of the highest-ranking women in finance proud of that of course And she also was proud when her son Sean made his first painting in 1991 at a North Side day care school There was only one disappointment: A baby sitter not Winkler was with the boy when he splattered watercolors onto paper using a clothespin for a paintbrush felt I was missing important steps in his said Winkler who returned to Helene Curtis full time in January 1991 two months after birth now 2 years old) can never get those early years That lament has been echoed by millions of mothers and with greater frequency fathers for more than two decades as the number of dual-income couples steadily increased More often than not though they voiced such concerns to their spouses friends or family not to anyone at work But today at a growing number of companies workers are telling their bosses directly And the bosses are listening Some are even responding Winkler was among the fortunate After she raised the issue at Helene Curtis the company started a pilot program so that employees could work part-time for family-related reasons Winkler now works four days a week at 80 percent of her salary with her major medical benefits intact She must however w'ork full time during her busiest months March and November Like Helene Curtis an increasing number of companies are setting policies or creating programs to help workers juggle job and family responsibilities The programs come in many forms from the widespread company-supported resource and referral services that employees can tap into by dialing an 800 number to the rarely offered on-site day care centers And from 1982 to 1990 the number of companies nationwide offering some type of child care services increased more than ninefold to 5600 from 600 according to the Families and Work Employer-Supported Family Programs Companies are responding to the increase in dual-income couples with programs designed to help workers with family responsibilities Institute in New York lot of companies realize the need for more of these programs but less than 50 to a hundred are really making a said Brad Googins director of Boston Center on Work and Family A major frustration in the work-family movement is that small to medium-size companies where most Americans work have lagged behind in adopting family-friendly policies Also while millions of white-collar professional women people like Winkler are the main recipients of these programs women in lower-paying clerical jobs have hardly benefited at all As Googins said: ultimate irony is that those people in the best financial situation are more likely to receive these kind of benefits than those who need them the Perhaps at this point more lip service than action said Arlene Johnson vice president of the Work and Family Institute But the fact that companies view work-family programs as a publicity tool is a sure sign of the progress that has been made Johnson said people are becoming more critical and taking a harder look at these programs is symptomatic of the progress been Johnson said in companies that have made great strides the employees can become more critical because people in general have become more sophisticated on this Those companies that have helped spearhead such programs have motives that go way beyond the publicity benefits done so mainly to help attract programs of companies offering programs Part-time schedules 87 8 Employee-assistance programs I 856 days 774 Flex-time 771 and retain the top talent always been a place that people want to work at and we want to keep it that said Perry Moody director of practice management for Andersen Consulting a separate unit of Arthur Andersen Co At Arthur Andersen employees can pick from a number of innovative part-time and flextime policies that have been developed since 1985 for parents mainly mothers returning to work after having a child If the company offered such programs said Dana La-Chapelle a 38-year-old associate partner with Andersen Consulting she probably would have left and looked for another job The mother of two sons and one daughter ages 2 to 8 was the first to take advantage of Andersen part-time flexible program in 1985 oldest child has special LaChapelle said 1 did See Page B-6 WORK Child care Top In thousands of companies 6 1982 '84 '86 '88 SOURCE: Families and Work Institute Percent Personal Personal leaves of absence 704 Child-care resource and referral 545 Spouse-employment assistance 519 Dependent-care assistance plans 495 Job-sharing arrangements 479 Flex-place 351 James Flanigan Stimulus bill trips Clinton The defeat of President economic stimulus bill in the Senate last week spells trouble for his whole legislative program including the high -priority health care reform due out next month And it does more it signals to one and all that if trying to understand the true guiding principles of US politics and the economy in the start with the burden of the national debt which quadrupled to $4 trillion in the 1980s Voters business people and President Clinton too feel strongly that the country must change from a dependence on debt and deficits Those voter feelings spawned the Ross Perot candidacy last year and are behind the success of Senate Republicans last week And count on it the long-term result of such attitudes will be a new kind of tax imposed in the next few years to pay for health care reform and other national needs Meanwhile see immediately ahead By itself last action means little economically At best the Clinton stimulus bill which the House of Representatives passed intact would have provided $16 billion for highway construction extended unemployment insurance summer jobs and small business loans desirable goals but only a droplet of money roughly 02 percent of the US economy Now $4 billion of extended unemployment benefits are likely to become law But politically the defeat of a new president on one of his first major legislative efforts is devastating Yet stock and bond markets seem positively cheerful at the prospect of continued gridlock Edward Yardeni chief economist of the CJ Lawrence investment firm reflects Wall Street opinion Clinton programs are just too complicated" says Yardeni And while that sounds like typical Wall Street grumbling the new president is not being hospitably received in Washington either His own Democrats are lukewarm at best glib so he thinks he can talk his way out of says one Democratic senator arid Republicans find Clinton an opponent they can unite against All of which only says that the administration will have a difficult time getting its program through unless like the poor credit risk at the general store it can pay in cash And that is where the simmering movement for value-added or national sales taxes comes in For the truth is the United States needs some new government programs There is a crying need for worker training programs to mend the yawning gap between the advance of our technology and the ability of poor Americans to work it We need health care reform The biggest expense of the health reform program due out in May will be to bring 35 million uninsured Americans into coverage Costs could run to $80 billion But it would be money well spent because the uninsured poor use medical services and hospital emergency rooms now and raise the public health bill So reform will be economic as well as moral But it be paid for with deficit spending Rather tax money will be raised to pay the bills as they come in The Senate is already crafting several versions of the value-added tax a new one is a 5 percent tax on gross sales proposed by Sen David Boren (D-Okla) that would raise $175 billion a year Yes such a tax would represent a transfer of resources to government from the private sector But that in fact is what Clinton has in mind He sees it as paying cash rather than borrowing to pay for programs the country wants and needs Los Angeles Times Upcoming In Business Mexican stocks are getting hot US investors like potential for high returns and solid growth The New York Times Although still not totally comfortable with the volatility of the Mexican stock market more US investors are taking stocks seriously hoping for long-term returns and the completion of a free-trade treaty Despite the lackluster performance this year and nagging doubts about political and economic stability analysts remain optimistic about the Mexican stock market expecting several more years of solid growth Foreign investors mostly from the United States have grown increasingly comfortable putting money into Mexican stocks Foreign investment exploded to $27 billion last year from slightly more than $42 billion in 1991 Although investment activity has moderated a bit this year foreigners account for nearly 20 percent of the total capitalization and more than half of the trading volume The Bolsa Mexicana de Vaiores literally the sack of is already Latin largest stock exchange in terms of capitalization or the number of shares multiplied by their value And for more than a decade it has been one of the best performing stock markets in the world according to some analysts The stock market as tracked by the Financial Times is 10 times its level in 1982 has been some reluctance to investing in Mexico until recently but investors have finally realized that our economy has slowed down whereas in Mexico the prospect for higher returns remains much said David Marshall a senior research analyst at the Investment Placement Group of San Diego Large investment fund companies like Kemper Financial Companies Fidelity Investments Capital Research Managers and Scudder Stevens Clark have become major Mexican players investing heavily in both Mexican equities and fixed-rate investments At the same time midsize investors like Investment Placement Group and pension funds like the State of Wisconsin Investment Board tfdve been drawn to Mexico by moderate inflation and consistent growth Mexico is still considered an emerging said Kathleen Harris who manages the $1 billion international equity portfolio of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board which has substantially increased its Mexican holdings over the last three years from the standpoint of how we view it currently we tend to think of it as being a not expensive market that still has some attractive risk-re-ward Knight-Riddei NEW YORK The Conference Board releases its consumer confidence index for April WEDNESDAY Stanislaus County Employer Advisory Group Spring Seminar 7:50 am to noon Modesto Centre Plaza 1000 St Modesto International Trade Luncheon sponsored by Merced CollegeCounty Center for International Trade Development 11:30 am to 1:30 pm Nest Restaurant Merced DETROIT United Auto Workers bargaining convention through April 30 THURSDAY WASHINGTON Commerce Department reports on the gross domestic product and corporate profits for the fourth quarter and new home sales for March Labor reports weekly jobless claims FRIDAY WASHINGTON Commerce Department reports on factory orders and personal income for March DETROIT Deadline for General Motors to file formal response to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which asked automaker to recall 47 million of its older pickup trucks TODAY WASHINGTON National Association of Realtors reports on existing home sales for March NEW YORK Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) annual convention through Wednesday TAMPA Fla IBM holds its annual meeting GREENSBORO NC American Express annual meeting LONDON Annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development through April BOSTON Newspaper Association of America meets DETROIT United Auto Workers bargaining convention through Wednesday ATLANTA Exxon discloses scientific studies from Exxon Valdez oil spill during four-day meeting of American Society for Testing and Materials TUESDAY WASHINGTON Labor Department reports on employment cost index and collective bargaining agreements in March Commerce Department reports personal income by state will wait for price drop Consumers Chicago Tribune LAGUNA NIGUEL Consumers long have balked at paying full price and getting smarter Some fresh research on consumer attitudes provids more fuel that in an economy in which buyers are very price-sensitive they have adopted a new mentality about what a product should cost A presentation by Yankelovich Partners the marketing research and consulting firm shows that among other things consumers Feel the average discounted price is the real price Wait for a price to be lowered before they will act Have developed a more posi price sensitivity among consumers shopping is way As part of their presentation to the annual convention of the American Association of Advertising Agencies at the Ritz-Carl-ton here Taylor and Wacker discussed a survey that found 52 percent of consumers believe there is a need for new regulations to assure truth in advertising The Yankelovich execs noted that truth in advertising only trailed consumer concerns about these areas: Water and air pollution 69 percent toxic and hazardous wastes 67 percent and nuclear safety 57 percent tive attitude toward merchants such as Wal-Mart who have developed their own private-label products No matter what you may have read Yankelovich executives state that recession is not over in the eyes of many an environment in which most people wait patiently for a price to be lowered Consumers increasingly trust chains that have developed private labels to a point that they assume the quality is right and the price represents value even against nationally branded items Westport Conn -based executives James Taylor and Watts Wackjpr also note that because of.