By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Most working mothers with young children are on the job more than 40 hours a week and have work schedules at odds with those of their partners, according to a national survey released yesterday.

"If you can't afford child care, then you work a different schedule than your husband," said Karen Nussbaum, director of the Working Women Department for the AFL-CIO, which sponsored the survey.

Jennifer Dorsey, 31, an assistant produce manager at a Kroger supermarket in Cincinnati, is on maternity leave after giving birth to her first child. She used to work days and spend evenings with her husband, a carpenter whose outdoor jobs require daylight. But when she goes back to work, she plans to request some evening shifts, likely 4 p.m. to midnight.

"I think that a couple of days a week we're going to have to play the . . . parents where one comes and one goes because day care is so expensive," said Dorsey.

Some parents who can afford child care choose to work different schedules anyway because they want their children to spend time with them, not day-care providers. Other women make the tradeoff to pursue attractive careers.

"I'm not the kind of person who can really sit still," said Debora Sutor, 39, a flight attendant who sometimes goes several days without seeing her husband, a day-shift concrete company superintendent, and their two sons, aged 12 and 16.

Still other women may have no choice; 34 percent of those surveyed said they have no say in their working hours. Few statistics are available comparing men's and women's work schedules.

Officials of the AFL-CIO, which represents 5 million female workers, say the new survey shows how women who work outside the home must struggle to meet demands of work and family. The survey of 765 women included roughly as many union members as there are in the work force -- 13 percent. Among its findings:

Sixty percent of women who work outside the home, and 67 percent of working mothers with children under age 18, say they work at least 40 hours a week.

Fifteen percent of working women say they work more than 40 hours each week.

Forty-six percent of women who are married or living with someone say they work a different schedule than their spouse or partner. Among married women with children, the figure is even higher, with 51 percent working a different schedule from their husbands.

Twenty-eight percent of women who work outside the home say at least part of their working hours are in the evenings or on weekends. Among women with children under 18, 26 percent work such hours.

Sixty-nine percent of women feel secure in their jobs. But 29 percent said they don't have paid sick leave for themselves, and 54 percent said they have no paid leave to care for a baby or ill family member. In addition, 74 percent said their employers don't offer child care benefits.

The survey didn't show whether men report a comparable lack of benefits, although Lake said other surveys have shown that women, on average, have fewer work-related benefits than men.

This is likely to have political consequences.

"Working women need help in balancing work and family, and they'll take that need into the voting booth in November," AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson said.

She said there is near-unanimous agreement among working women of all ages and races on what issues matter most to them: Equal pay, paid family leave, health care coverage, retirement security and affirmative action.

The survey found equal pay the top issue for working women, with 87 percent considering it important.

Eighty-four percent want improved health care coverage, 83 percent want more paid leave, and 81 percent want laws to strengthen pensions and Social Security.

The Republican National Committee said not all working women would agree, calling the AFL-CIO list of priorities a political program.

In fact, the survey findings will be used to develop a political agenda that working women can rally behind during this election year, Chavez-Thompson said. Women comprise more than half of the nation's work force, and 72 percent of mothers with young children work outside the home for pay, she noted.

The first step in shaping the political effort will take place this weekend at the AFL-CIO's "Working Women 2000" conference in Chicago, where 5,000 women are expected to gather in what is billed as the largest-ever conference of its kind.

"We've heard of the election years of the soccer mom, the waitress mom and the basketball mom. This might well be the year of the Super Mom," Nussbaum said. "These are working family issues, and certainly men and children could benefit. But we expect that it will be largely women who lead the fight."

Each of the major party's leading presidential candidates, Vice President Al Gore for the Democrats and Texas Gov. George W. Bush for the Republicans, are working hard to woo the politically potent bloc of working women voters.

Gore, who is scheduled to speak at this weekend's "Working Women 2000" conference, has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO. Gore touts his support for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides unpaid leave to care for a sick child or relative to employees in companies with more than 50 workers.

Gore wants to expand the law to cover parent-teacher conferences and children's routine medical appointments. He also supports legislation that would give workers the option of taking time off to be with their families instead of extra compensation.

Bush yesterday said he will work to develop policies to lighten the load for single working mothers, saying that he wants Americans to know how tough life can be for a single mother trying to raise two children on an annual salary of $22,000.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster whose firm, Lake Snell Perry & Associates, conducted the survey in January, said: "It's no surprise that time and benefits related to time top the agenda for working women, whose schedules are long and irregular.

The candidate who solves the problem of time is the candidate who definitely will win the working women vote. Women want time, they want better pay, and they want better benefits."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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