Treating Employees Fairly Don't let employees without families feel neglected.

When any of Steve Sarowitz's 100 employees wants a day or an afternoon off due to illness, family matters, vacation or any other reason, they can dip into their personal bank of paid time off, no questions asked. "They can basically use PTO for anything they want," says the 39-year-old founder of Ameripay Payroll Ltd., a $10 million payroll services company in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

At a growing number of companies like Ameripay, PTO replaces the conventional approach that uses combinations of sick leave and vacation. Employers like PTO as a solution to sick-day abuse, but it's also a way of offering family-friendly benefits without leaving out workers who don't have spouses or children at home.

That's an important issue, according to Elinor Burkett, author of The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless. "What all employers have to care about is keeping employees," Burkett notes. "That's the reason for these policies in the first place."