As a Funeral Home Owner Working Through a Deadly Pandemic, I’ve Seen the Need for Universal Paid Leave
Dispatches from the Paid Leave for All Bus Tour: Roanoke, Virginia
Blog Post
Paid Leave for All Campaign
Aug. 6, 2021
From August 2-13, 2021, Paid Leave for All will be rolling through 14 stops in 10 states to share and hear stories from workers and businesses, to celebrate state successes, and to amplify the need for paid family and medical leave for all working people and families in the United States. Read more about the 2021 Paid Leave For All Bus Tour here.
Roanoke, VA, Aug. 5 — While many of my fellow small business owners worried about how they were going to keep their doors open during the worst of the past 18 months, my employees and I were running on all cylinders, often working 20-hour days. That’s because we run a family-owned and -operated funeral home & crematory. Tragically, the pandemic meant we were completely overwhelmed.
My Uncle Lawrence co-founded Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home & Crematory almost 70 years ago. For three generations, we’ve served our neighbors in this community during some of the most difficult times in their lives. Our work isn’t always easy, but we’ve maintained a steadfast commitment to providing care and comfort to families when they need it most.
Working in the death care industry, I’ve always been aware of the critical need for time to care for loved ones. But even for me, the pandemic exposed this need in a new way. We saw early on that everyone — no matter their age, race or occupation — was at risk of dying from COVID. And, we knew that as frontline workers, our staff were at high risk or exposure to COVID. Several times, members of our team had to quarantine following exposure.
Thankfully, last year Congress passed a bill that included temporary tax credits for businesses that provided their employees with paid family and medical leave during the pandemic. This ensured we were able to continue paying our employees when they had to take time off to quarantine or care for themselves or a loved one with COVID. Simply put, these temporary tax credits helped us stay open as we navigated staff shortages.
Since long before the pandemic, I’ve known that policies like paid family and medical leave are good business. As my Uncle Lawrence was fond of saying, “Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you.” That’s why we strive to provide our employees with the best benefits possible, including paid family and medical leave. I’ve always believed that we can’t ask our staff to care for our neighbors in their times of need and then abandon them when they themselves need support.
This isn’t just about our staff though, it’s also about investing in our business. Finding the right people to work in the funeral service industry can be very difficult. When we find employees who can relate to and serve people from all walks of life, we want them to stick around. Providing paid leave is one way we make sure we keep our great staff intact. It’s one of the reasons why we have employees who have been with us since just about the beginning.
While we’re glad to provide paid leave, it isn’t always easy, and it would be much more affordable if we had universal paid family and medical leave. That’s why we support a national paid leave program and why I, along with others here in Roanoke today, called on Congress to pass paid leave. This would put paid leave in reach for all small business owners and their employees.
Paid leave is good for families and good for businesses. It’s long past time to make it universal.
Visit PaidLeaveforAll.org and follow Paid Leave for All on Instagram and Twitter for more information on the bus tour and on ways to get involved in winning paid family and medical leave for all.
The views and opinions expressed by the authors of this series are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New America.