THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

If you are one of the low wage service personnel that most people don't even notice as they go about their daily lives, chances are you have to go to work when the snow flies, you can't afford not to.

As the snow piled up on Hillside Avenue, Navarrete thought about her imminent commute. She works nights, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., as a hotel maid on Long Island, about 25 miles east. She drives 60 minutes each way — much longer in the snow — for just $8.50 per hour, 25 cents below the state minimum wage.

“I have to go to work,” Navarrete said, reassured that Blanco, a landscaper, could stay with the baby overnight. “My boss is making me work tonight and tomorrow night. If I didn’t go in, I would lose my job.”

In the region affected by the storm, over 577,000 workers labor at or below the minimum wage (PDF). They are overrepresented in the service sector and thus unlikely to get a paid snow day — maids, nannies, home health aides, taxi drivers, fast-food cooks, grocery store stockers and janitors, to name a few. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these employees rarely enjoy flexibility on the job. Nationally, only 20 percent of low-wage workers (in the bottom tenth of private-sector earners) enjoy paid sick leave. And only 39 percent have paid vacation, let alone personal days.

A massive disruption like a blizzard hits low-wage employees hardest, said Amy Traub, senior policy analyst at liberal think tank Demos. “There is no working from home if you’re a sales associate or if you’re a cashier. If they can’t get to work because of weather, you miss a paycheck. If the store closes early or works with a skeleton staff, you miss a paycheck.”

Some states and municipalities battling the storm — Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City and Jersey City, N.J. — require employers to provide paid time off. But laws typically do not apply to very small businesses; nor do they cover missed work due to lack of child care or a shutdown in public transit. “There’s no recourse if [the boss] says, ‘Come here or you’re fired,’ unless you have a union contract,” Traub said.

This article was about New York area workers, who dodged a bullet when the storm veered away from the City. The workers in the Boston-Providence region aren't so lucky.