AUSTIN, Tx. – Americans can blame their bosses — and lawmakers — for losing the pursuit of happiness.

Parental leave, sick time, vacation days and other workplace policies make it easier to combine work with child-rearing, and a dearth of such benefits explains why U.S. parents are unhappier than people without children, according to researchers.

Parents in 22 European and English-speaking countries are more apt to be just as happy – if not happier – than their childless peers, the researchers found.

Matthew Andersson, a Baylor University sociologist who participated in the study, said workplace conditions are the root of a “happiness gap” that is wider in the United States than elsewhere.

“In the U.S., we’re not treating our parents very well,” he said.

A research team, whose work is set to appear in the American Journal of Sociology this fall, crunched two sweeping surveys of international happiness, and compared factors such as the duration of paid parenting leave, guaranteed sick and vacation leave, child care costs, wages and the availability of flexible work schedules.

Jennifer Glass, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, said about 41 percent of American workers, mostly in low-wage jobs, lack access to paid vacation or sick leave, unlike workers in other countries where such benefits are required by law.

“The U.S. has been peculiar in relying on the free market” and competition among companies to offer better benefits, she said.

“Other countries have what I call a better floor,” she said.

Paula England, a New York University sociologist who wasn’t on the research team but is familiar with its findings, said the study makes a revealing connection between happiness and workplace policies.

“That’s absolutely new,” she said.

But even parents with steady jobs and benefits pay a happiness penalty.

Valerie Lopez, 29, retired this spring from teaching art at Trimble Technical High School in Fort Worth to stay at home with her second child.

It wasn’t a choice that she and her husband, Ryan, 28, made easily.

After six years in the classroom, Lopez made an annual salary of about $50,000. Combined with his commissions as an AT&T sales rep, they had enough money to buy a house, save and live a “comfortable lifestyle,” she said.

Lopez now sells real estate on weekends, and the money isn’t what she made as a teacher.

Despite having “an amazing position at an amazing school” – her old high school – Lopez said she was wracked with guilt when she returned to teaching after her first daughter’s birth.

She missed seeing her daughter crawl and walk for the first time, and said she was a “ghostly figure” in her child’s life.

“Summer vacation would come around, and she didn’t know who I was,” she said. “I told myself this wasn’t going to happen again.”

Having the kind of benefits to which German mothers are entitled — which include a year of subsidized leave —  would have meant not having to choose between keeping a “dream job” and nurturing a new baby, Lopez said.

“I had to give up my career to be in this position,” she said. “It’s kind of pathetic that I had to make this kind of decision to spend a year with my daughter. If I’d had a one-year maternity leave, that would have allowed me to return to school and balance my work life.”

Such tensions – and happiness drains – afflict fathers, as well, the researchers found.

Moreover, Glass said, giving parents better benefits boosts the happiness for everyone in a country – not just that of parents.

“The benefits of well-raised children are enjoyed by everyone,” she said. “I think it should be a community cost, like roads. We’re just a little slow to the party.”

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com