Like all mothers, Adilo Muse adores her four children, who range in age from one to five years old.
Like all mothers, Adilo Muse adores her four children, who range in age from one to five years old. The oldest has just started school, and the youngest loves to play with his brothers. But Adilo is struggling to have her youngest son’s medical needs taken care of, since he has asthma and sometimes requires a breathing shield. To make matters worse, the doctor says he will likely require surgery for a small lump in his throat. Adilo’s family likely qualifies for Medicaid, and she is in the process of applying for it. Adilo isn’t unemployed, though – she works as a janitor at the Lazarus Building downtown. Despite working for cleaning contractor Professional Maintenance for four years, she is stuck at part-time status, working just 20 hours a week. She has searched for other jobs with no success. Between what she makes and what her husband makes at temporary jobs, “the money is not enough,” she says. They manage to make ends meet in their small apartment on the West Side only through the help of family members. “My mom is also sick,” she says, “but I don’t have enough money for daycare.” So if her husband is working, her mom has to watch the children when Adilo goes to work. Despite this, Adilo wants more hours – because if she was full-time, she would qualify for health care and vacation days. With no sick days and a “four-strike” point system that can get her fired if she misses work, she can’t afford to take days off to care for her children or for herself. Columbus needs family-sustaining wages and benefits, and the corporations here can afford to support those. Eleven Fortune 1000 CEOs headquartered here took home $134 million in pay in 2011, and 2012 was a banner year for corporations rebounding from the recession. On the other hand, most Ohioans make less today than they did in 1979 – meaning that while corporate profits have increased, working families’ wages haven’t kept pace with rising costs of food, rent and utilities. Like many of her coworkers, Adilo wants to see things improve, both for her sake and for her children’s sake. She wants to see them go to college, but she knows that unless something changes, they will not be able to afford it. -- source link
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