Labor Groups 'Fight for $15 on 4/15': Protests Around the Nation for Increased Hourly Pay
Labor organizers across the nation have planned their biggest day of protests yet for pay of $15 an hour and a union for fast-food and other low-wage workers.
Workers in the home-care, child-care, airport and industrial laundry fields, along with adjunct professors and Walmart employees in 200 cities across the U.S. are expected to hold protests to fight for an hourly wage increase to $15.
Marches have sprung in cities from New York all the way to San Francisco. The demonstrations will be in more than 230 U.S. cities and college campuses.
One protester in New York who was marching with the placard that read "Fight for $15 on 4/15" said he hopes change will be the outcome of the march. Jumal Tarver, 36, said he cooks and cleans at a franchised McDonald's in Manhattan but cannot make ends meet on his pay of $8.75 per hour, according to a Reuters report.
He said he must rely on public assistance on top of his salary. "It's hard for me to provide for my daughters with $8.75," he said.
This month, McDonald's said it would raise its starting salary to $1 above the local minimum wage in the first national pay policy by McDonald's. The move, though, only applies to workers at company-owned stores, which only account for around 10 percent of its locations.
The fight for $15 campaign is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and began in late 2012 with fast-food workers. Since then, organizers have used the spotlight to rally a variety of low-wage workers, including airport workers, home care workers and adjunct professors.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc early this year said it would hike its minimum pay to $9 an hour and to $10 an hour in 2016. Target Corp and T.J. Maxx said they would hike pay to $9 an hour.
