( CNN ) -- In this election season , Republicans and Democrats have been touting the importance of family and hard work that make America a land of opportunity . Mitt Romney has talked about his father 's love and rise from odd-job laborer to successful businessman . President Barack Obama has spoken of how his grandparents worked industriously to go to college , buy a house and raise their children . While triumphant stories of middle-class families make for good campaign speeches , the truth is far less heartening . America 's policies to support workers and families are worse than any other country in the developed world and hardly better than some in the developing world . Take , for example , family leave policies . Until 1993 , Americans had no guaranteed leave time from work whatsoever . If you needed to take time off to care for a dying family member , there was not much you could have done to stop employers from firing you . With the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act ( FMLA ) , Americans were guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year . However , because it is unpaid , workers who do not have sufficient income can not take advantage of the leave . Opinion : The true difference between Obama , Romney . In addition , the law only applies to workers who have been with a current employer for more than a year and who work at companies with more than 50 employees . Even if workers could afford it , fewer than half of those without a high school education are covered and eligible to take unpaid leave . Likewise , when it comes to policies affecting new parents , America has no federal law mandating paid maternity leave . There are only a handful of other countries that also do not guarantee new mothers paid leave , the wealthiest of which is Papua New Guinea . In 2011 , Papua New Guinea had a GDP of nearly $ 13 billion , while the United States had a GDP of $ 15 trillion . Our GDP is more than 1,000 times that of the next richest country with no federal paid maternity leave . No wonder some believe that the U.S. has `` the most family-hostile public policy '' in the developed world . We fall short of our status as an advanced nation in other ways , too , like in the amount of vacation time that employers are legally required to give to employees every year . Nearly 160 countries offer paid vacation days to workers , with many countries providing two weeks or more . The U.S. offers none . What about sick days ? Again , we are far behind numerous other countries . The U.S. government does not mandate any minimum amount of paid sick leave for workers . This puts us alone among similar advanced nations . We have only unpaid sick leave for those covered under FMLA protections , and then it 's up to individual companies to determine their own polices toward sick leave . In our capitalist society , the task of providing necessary worker protections and family support has largely been left out of the hands of the government . Benevolent employers took it upon themselves to provide benefits to workers . But this model of `` welfare capitalism '' has greatly diminished in recent years . It 's time for our government to re-evaluate its inaction . Today , the family structure is changing rapidly in our country . More than 70 % of women with children younger than 18 are in the work force . More and more , both parents have to work full time to support a middle-class family . Traditional models of balancing work and family commitments are badly out of date . Opinion : Republicans rick being the party of mean . America has always been proud of its tradition of -- and belief in -- limited interference in the private sector . But our labor policies , especially as they apply to working families , are in dire need of updates . While the lack of federal work-family policies might be cheap and convenient for employers , there is no way that it 's any good for families in the 21st century . Instead of just talking about helping families , politicians need to implement family-oriented policies to help working mothers and fathers , and those who need to take more than a few days off to help care for a sick child . Whoever gets elected in November needs to take a hard look at the facts . Our federal family policies certainly make America unique -- but not in the way we want . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Josh Freedman .
Republicans and Democrats say that family and hard work are critical . Josh ##i : America 's work - family relations are worse than many countries . He says the U.S. lacks laws on maternity leave , sick leave , vacation leave . Freedman : Our government needs to to implement family - oriented policies .