Technology is changing our lives in many ways, one of which is to enable millions of Americans to work at home instead of spending time and money on daily transportation to another place of work. What has made home-work possible is the availability of computers and the growing demand for the information and services that computers provide.
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures say that 18 million people do some work at home, half of whom work at least eight hours per week in their homes. Three million of these are operating a home-based non-farm business, and 42 percent of these are women.
However, of those who work entirely at home, 71 percent are women. The number of women who work entirely at home is probably much higher than the reported 777,000 because so many are reluctant to admit they have home-based businesses for fear of running afoul of various restrictions.
The National Center for Policy Analysis of Dallas recently published a landmark report by national expert Joanne Prall on the legal barriers home-workers face. The restrictions are often complex, contradictory, arbitrary, and unclear; the cost of complying is excessive; the penalties for non-compliance are severe.
A survey made by the American Policy Association of Chicago found that 90 percent of 1,000 cities surveyed have some restrictions on home-based work. Restrictions range from requiring a special permit, to licensing or zoning regulations, to a requirement to appear before public hearings.
The patchwork quilt of local restrictions on home-based work includes the following: 46 percent of the cities have restrictions on traffic, 42 percent have restrictions on outside signs, 33 percent have restrictions on on-street parking, 33 percent have restrictions on the employment of workers, 20 percent have restrictions on the amount of floor space used, 13 percent have restrictions on sales, and 11 percent have a prohibition on outside storage of materials.
In Arlington, VA, Redding, CA, Largo, FL, and Rockford, IL, home-based employers are forbidden to employ anyone who does not live in the home. Many cities prohibit advertisements that give the address of a home-based business, including advertising in the yellow pages.
Restrictions on home-based work reveal a dichotomy between casual enforcement (usually only if a neighbor complains) and very harsh penalties when they are enforced. In Marquette, MI, for example, the penalty for violating the zoning ordinances governing home-based work is a fine of up to $100 or 30 days in jail for each day of violation, so that a year of violation could total a fine of $36,500 or 30 years in jail.
Many of the restrictions were put on the law books years ago, when the purpose was to prevent the noise and dirt of manufacturing from infringing on the property rights of others in the neighborhood.
These restrictions have no relevance to the quiet and clean work which people want to do in their homes in the Information and Computer Age. Other restrictions were imposed because of lobbying by unions which wanted all employees to work in factories where they were easier to organize. The unions have always condemned “piece work at home” by which workers are paid per item produced.
Eleven states prohibit certain types of home-based work, five states regulate how much floor area can be used, and eight states allow home inspection by state authorities. In New York, all home-based work is prohibited unless the Industrial Commissioner specifically finds that the work will not unduly jeopardize factory workers (in other words, not compete with them by producing a better product).
The Federal Government is in the act, too, with tax laws and labor laws that impede home-based work. Federal law prohibits employing persons in the home to make women’s garments, embroidery, handkerchiefs, jewelry, buttons and buckles, and mittens and gloves. Vermont women won the right in 1984 to knit sweaters in their home for sale only after a three-year legal battle.
Home-based work is the paramount women’s issue of the 1980s. Eighty percent of employed women will have a baby, and most want flexibility in their employment in order to meet the needs of their family.
Nearly 40 percent of women work fewer than 40 hours per week in income-producing work, while less than 16 percent of men work part-time. Among full-time workers, women are twice as likely as men to work fewer than eight hours per day.
Women should have the option to do income-producing work in the home without the costs and harassments of outmoded laws written for a long-gone era. It’s time to get rid of the laws which unfairly limit women’s access to the marketplace.
