President Reagan works at home (as has every President since James Madison moved into the White House). No wonder he looks so relaxed; he doesn’t have to cope with getting to and from work during rush hour, as do most Americans.
About 13 percent of currently employed Americans work at home, and we enjoy many advantages over those who travel daily to another workplace. We heave a sigh of relief every morning when we hear the helicopter traffic report about cars moving bumper-to-bumper at 20 miles an hour.
We don’t have to worry about auto accidents or street muggings on the way to and from a job. We don’t need money to buy lunch or special clothes to wear on the job. If we have small children or disabled dependents, we do not have to hire special care-providers because we can tend to those duties simultaneously while working at home.
So what’s the big deal? It’s a free choice, isn’t it — to take a job or work at home? Not exactly, because whether or not you have that choice depends on what kind of work you do, and the criteria are so silly that reasonable people can hardly believe them.
I work at a word processor so nobody interferes with me — yet. But some women who work at their sewing or knitting machines have discovered that Big Brother wants to stop them from working at home.
A 43-year-old regulation prohibits working at home on women’s apparel, knitted outerwear, gloves and mittens, buttons and buckles, embroidery, jewelry, and handkerchiefs. This regulation is a legacy of the Roosevelt Administration, put into effect at the demand of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) on the specious argument that they were worried about low pay and “sweatshop” conditions.
The regulations are downright silly. As one homeworking woman wrote the President, it is legal to make men’s underwear at home but not women’s, athletic gloves but not work gloves, upholstery buttons but not women’s garment buttons. In 1984, as a result of lobbying by the Vermont knitters and two public hearings, the ban was modified to exempt knitted outerwear. This process took three years and protracted litigation, with the ILGWU fighting all the way. But the regulations were kept in force for all the other items.
The unions’ real reason for wanting to keep the ban on homework is that it is harder to get homeworkers to join unions. Homeworkers are individualists who resist collectivization.
Also, the unions can see the handwriting on the wall that computers open up the possibility for a quantum increase in homeworkers. A large amount of word processing and computer work can be done at home and linked up with the office by the miracles of modern technology.
Labor Secretary William Brock placed a rule revision in the August 21 Federal Register, putting the Labor Department on the record in favor of rescission of the Homework Rule. Public comment was invited for 60 days.
The proposed rule revision would modify the current restrictions by permitting employers in the above six industries to legally employ homeworkers provided they first obtain certificates from the Department of Labor, pay homeworkers at least the minimum wage and overtime pay, and keep records for the government.
The Department must be kept apprised of where the homeworkers are working so they can be inspected. This isn’t any threat to anyone; inspections conducted by the Department of Labor during the past year showed that the women were earning more than the minimum wage.
The 1984 Republican Party platform stated: “We demand repeal of prohibitions against household manufacturing. Restrictions on work in the home are intolerable intrusions into our private lives and limit economic opportunity.” Fulfilling that campaign promise is long overdue.
The homework issue is a women’s issue because it disproportionately affects women. A much larger percentage of women than men prefer to work at home for a variety of reasons: to combine paid work with care of pre-school children or other dependents, a personal disability, to fit a more flexible schedule, to facilitate part-time work, lack of transportation, to continue as a one-car family, or because they live in rural or isolated areas.
Homework is also a freedom issue. It should be part of our American freedom to choose where we want to work, including our own homes.
