I've been in the restaurant industry for about 9 years. I never really thought about paid sick days, or the need of it until I came to DC about 3 years ago. I found a job at a restaurant, and about a month into working there I got sick.

I still had to go to work even though I sick, and had it not been for my co-workers who begged our employer to let me go home so they wouldn’t get sick, I would have kept working.

I’ve been working at a bar for a year and a half. As an hourly employee, I am entitled to paid sick days, but I had no idea until Restaurant Opportunities Center United told me about it.

I was forced to work and finish my shift even though I couldn’t even walk. I couldn’t work the next day, and I had to go to the hospital. This kind of thing happens all the time and having paid sick days would definitely help.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger, with slightly more than 20 employees and a budget of a few million dollars per year, provides paid sick leave to all our full-time employees... Proving paid sick leave is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.

I’ve been a bartender for about 9 years and since 2007 I’ve been working in hotels. In hotels you do get sick pay, unlike every other place I’ve worked, but it is only minimum wage and management is taught to discourage you from calling in sick.

Originally from Haiti, I am a mother of a teenaged son, and I support a number of family members back home in Haiti. When working for a year and half at the Capital Grille in Miami as a dishwasher, I was doing the job of two or more people. I usually worked for four hours or more, but the chef would clock me out earlier than I finished.

Cheryl is an elderly lady, and she improves her health, as well the health of her community, by participating in a community supported agriculture farm sponsored by the Community Action Agency of St. Louis County with CSBG funding.