Liz Weiss, senior policy analyst for Interfaith Worker Justice, has an excellent post on this week’s God’s Politics blog about the plight of the ‘working poor’ in America. It really hits home how many people in this country aren’t entitled to sick days and put up with terrible working conditions because they are poor and have no other options. A choice selection:
Last Tuesday was a great day for low-wage workers in my hometown of Washington, D.C., when the City Council voted to mandate paid sick and safe days for many private-sector workers. The legislation could affect 200,000 District workers who do not currently have the right to a single paid sick day.
In fact, this is an indignity that exists nationwide. Neither the federal government nor any state has granted workers the right to paid sick days. (San Francisco passed a municipal measure in 2006.) As a result, more than 50 million workers in the U.S. must work when they are sick - through colds, fevers, and stomach flus - on pain of lost wages or even lost jobs.
Nearly 100 million workers can’t take a day off to care for a family member, such as a sick child or elderly parent. When a worker or a loved one gets sick, she or he must either work anyway or risk losing a day’s pay or even her job.
This is yet another example of why fighting for the rights of some workers means fighting for the rights of all workers. Except for a very few people at the top echelon, we are all working for someone, and we all deserve to be treated with respect while on the job.