“When my daughter is sick, I have to choose between staying home with her without pay and sending her to daycare sick so that we can pay our bills.  When I got sick this year, it took me weeks to recover financially because I don’t earn paid sick days.”
Susana Padilla, Oakland

 

“I work at a laundromat and I’m not allowed to earn paid sick days.  Whenever I get sick, I have to either go to work sick or go without pay.  I am all alone and to go even one day without pay seriously affects my ability to support myself.”
Antonio Cua, Daly City

 

“Even though I work for a Fortune 500 company I don’t take sick days because I don’t get paid.  Instead, I (like many of my co-workers without paid sick days) come into work and infect everyone else in the office.  This past winter was horrible – the entire office was sneezing, sniffling and coughing for months because people without paid sick days cannot afford to stay home.”
Lee Ritscher, Marina

 

“I support my 3 year-old daughter by working in a fast food restaurant where I don’t earn paid sick days. If I’m sick I either have to go to work sick or I lose pay.  I need sick days so that I can stay home with my daughter when she’s sick and still get paid.”
Claire Parke, Los Angeles