I’ve worked in the restaurant industry in Allegheny County for more than four decades, serving in just about every role, from cook to server and bartender. I’m immensely proud of the hard work I’ve put in and the career I’ve built in the industry I love. But throughout my 40-year career, I’ve struggled with the same frustrating, deeply unjust problem: not having access to any paid family or medical leave.
I know I’m far from alone. Four out of five workers in the United States don’t have access to paid leave through their employers. That’s a structural problem that puts workers like me in impossible situations.
For example, in 1988, while my father was battling cancer, my mother was rushed to the hospital one day with a ruptured appendix. They were in separate rooms in the same hospital for about a week, and they both needed significant follow-up care.
It was a terrifying, incredibly difficult situation for them and for me. I needed to visit them in the hospital, to look after their house and to help them with day-to-day tasks once they were discharged. But I couldn’t, because I had no paid leave, and if I had taken unpaid leave from my job, I couldn’t have paid my bills. I was incredibly distracted at work as I worried about my parents’ health and how they were managing without me. No one should be put in a situation like that.
That was more than 30 years ago, but it could be today. Little has changed in all these years. The U.S. still doesn’t guarantee workers like me paid family and medical leave or paid sick days. In fact, we are one of only two developed nations in the world without a paid leave policy.
That’s a huge burden for workers, and it’s a threat to public health, too. Whenever restaurant workers — or, for that matter, those of us who work in nursing homes, child care centers and other places with significant interaction with the public — start feeling sick, we face an impossible choice: Lose much-needed income, or risk our health and that of our customers and co-workers. One reason COVID-19 spread so fast is our lack of paid leave.
I am 64 years old and, once again this year, I couldn’t access the paid leave I desperately needed. That’s why, when the pandemic hit, I made the tough choice to stop working because I am high-risk for the virus and it just wasn’t safe. That’s caused major financial challenges for my family.
It’s long past time lawmakers found a solution and guaranteed paid leave for all. I support Allegheny County Council’s legislation to address paid sick leave for all county workers. The U.S. Congress did the right thing when they included emergency paid leave benefits in the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act to help workers quarantine and recover from COVID-19, as well as care for their children when schools and child care programs closed. But that policy left a lot of workers out, and Congress let it expire in 2020. It also only covered caregiving needs that were related to COVID-19.
What workers like me really need is a comprehensive, permanent paid family and medical leave and paid sick days policy that covers the full range of caregiving needs — whether that’s welcoming a new child, caring for a sick loved one, or recovering from illness or a serious medical condition.
That sort of policy would have had a huge impact on my life and career. It would help working families like mine make ends meet, make our country healthier and boost our economy. To truly recover from the pandemic and “build back better,” as President Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail, lawmakers must make passing paid leave a top priority.
Jim Conway is a restaurant worker in Monroeville and a member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center and MomsRising.
First Published: March 7, 2021, 10:30 a.m.
