Protesters nationwide call for $15 minimum wage

Marking the second year of a campaign to boost the minimum wage, thousands of low-paid workers and their supporters marched in 190 cities across the nation Thursday, calling for $15 an hour.

The protests have focused on fast-food and retail chains, but workers in other low-paying jobs joined the action in 35 states, organizers said. Joining the walkouts, picket lines and demonstrations were retail employees at dollar and convenience stores, home health care aides and airport workers who handle baggage, push wheelchairs or clean planes.

An unknown number of non-union workers walked off their jobs beginning Wednesday night, organizers said. It was not immediately known if any were fired.

Several cities in the Fight for $15 campaign, which is supported by unions and social justice organizations, saw their first fast-food strikes, including Jackson, Miss.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Buffalo. In the nation's capital, about 650 federal contract workers walked off fast-food jobs at landmarks like the National Zoo, organizers said.

Job actions were also planned at airports in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, Oakland, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle and Atlanta.

The "living wage" campaign began two years ago when workers walked off their jobs at McDonald's and Burger King in New York. Business groups say raising the minimum wage will hurt profits and small franchisees, prompting layoffs or reduced hours.

The federal hourly minimum stands at $7.25. A bill backed by President Obama to raise it to $10.10 by late 2016 is stalled in Congress.

In Jackson, a mix of local fast-food and sit-down restaurant workers and community members entered one McDonald's chanting, "We can't survive on $7.25!" as customers ate breakfast. They were quickly told to leave by store management and set up shop across the street without incident.

In Michigan, job actions began Wednesday night in Detroit, Flint and Lansing — at retail and convenience stores that include Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Speedway gas stations, as well as some fast-food eateries, said Darci McConnell, with the Michigan Workers Organizing Committee.

Workers walked off their jobs for one shift "and then they'll do a walk-back the next day" to show they're available to work again — although some likely will be fired, McConnell said.

The job action was organized mainly by the Service Employees International Union, which claims 1.9 million members in 100 occupations nationwide. Other unions, political groups, university workers, students and ministers also helped organize the effort.

"We hope this thing blows up to be an awesome, positive move. We want to help families that are hurting, and we want Americans to see that this is already working in a number of places, so why not across the board?" the Rev. W.J. Rideout III, pastor of All God's People Church, a non-denominational church on Detroit's east side.

Last month, voters in four states, San Francisco and Oakland approved increases in the minimum wage. Voters in Illinois and several localities in Wisconsin backed non-binding proposals to raise minimum pay.

Tuesday, the Chicago City Council voted to raise the basic hourly wage from $8.25 to $13 by 2019.

By the first of the year, the minimum wage will be higher than the federal standard in 29 states, an increase of six states.

Even as they swept Republican Senate and gubernatorial candidates into office in the November elections, voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nevada and South Dakota passed measures to boost the minimum wage as high as $9.75 an hour.

The initiatives will raise minimum hourly earnings for 609,000 low-wage workers, the National Employment Law Project reported.

SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued a statement supporting the demonstrations "aimed at fighting to fix America's broken economic, immigration and criminal justice systems."

"From McDonald's and Walmart parking lots to the streets of Ferguson and New York, nationwide, communities are rising up --- through actions, strikes and protests --- crying out because they believe that a better path forward is possible.

"The economy -- and our country -- are out of balance because so many people are trying to raise families on service sector paychecks but are getting crushed as corporations use their power to push down the wage floor.

"The Fight for $15 movement is growing as more Americans living on the brink decide to stick together to fight for better pay and an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few."

Jacob Hannah, a 19-year-old employee of a South Jackson McDonald's who wore a sweatshirt and button with the message "Show Me $15," said he has to fight not only earning $7.25 per hour but not working enough hours each pay period to make that money stretch.

He said that he lives with his mother and helps with household finances, but that he can only do so much of that on what he earns. He wants to go to college, but said he can't afford tuition.

"It's just not enough," Hannah said as passing motorists occasionally honked their horns in support of the demonstrators. "You make $7.25 an hour and they still cut your hours, take your hours. You don't even feel like going to work."

In a statement on its corporate website, McDonald's said "we respect everyone's right to peacefully protest," but added that the minimum-wage fight "goes well beyond McDonald's — it affects our country's entire workforce."

"McDonald's and our independent franchisees support paying our valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace," the statement said. "We believe that any minimum wage increase should be implemented over time so that the impact on owners of small and medium-sized businesses — like the ones who own and operate the majority of our restaurants — is manageable."

The company said any increase should take into account the Affordable Care Act and its definition of full time employment and the treatment, from a tax perspective, of investments made by businesses owners.

The chain said 90% of its U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by franchisees who set wages "according to job level and local and federal laws."

The company said it "does not determine wages set by our more than 3,000 U.S. franchisees."

Thursday's protests came as The New York Times reported on a Labor Department study showing that between 3.5% and 6.5% of wage and salary workers in California and New York — about 300,000 in each state — are paid less than the minimum wage.

The workers are generally younger, and many are probably undocumented, the Times noted.

Jeff Ayres reports for The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger; Bill Laitner reports for the Detroit Free Press. Contributing: Paul Davisdon, USA TODAY