Florida labor bill could aid victims of domestic violence
MIAMI – Reflecting on her assault 12 years ago, 41-year-old Wanda Gomez said she did not know if she was going to make it out alive. She had been stabbed multiple times by an angry ex-boyfriend, she said.
Her attacker, who was also a co-worker, had been kicked out from her home after he was accused of sexually assaulting Gomez's school-aged daughter. With her assailant at large, authorities advised Gomez, a mother of seven who made $13 an hour as a demolition worker, to leave her home and quit her job out concerns for her safety.
"You don't have many choices," said Gomez who was placed in a shelter, and later transitional housing roughly 30 miles away from her home in Miami due to her lack of financial resources. "It's between your life or your job."
Gomez is one of the many women across the U.S. who are forced to quit jobs due to domestic violence. Survivors of domestic violence qualify for unemployment benefits in 41 states. But in Florida - which averages over 117,000 reported cases of domestic violence per year - there is no unemployment compensation for domestic violence victims.
Read more: http://www.journalgazette.net/news/us/20190331/florida-labor-bill-could-aid-victims-of-domestic-violence
