Fast food workers in more than a dozen American cities are on strike on Friday to demand that the federal minimum be raised to $ 15 an hour.
Prior to Monday’s holiday in honor of American civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the group known as Fight for 15 said that megacorporation workers, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, were encouraged to quit their jobs. on what would be King’s 92nd birthday on January 15th.
Memphis McDonald’s worker Karesha Manns said in a statement that she earns $ 10 an hour at her local McDonald’s, “which is not enough to pay the bills or support [her] family”.
“I’m hitting today to continue [the reverend’s] fights for racial and economic justice in this country, which means that every worker earns a decent wage and has a decent job, “said the statement.
Since 2012, the group has organized strikes calling for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage remained at $ 7.25 for more than 10 years.
Fight for 15 and Union, an international workers’ movement that advocates higher wages, confirmed that the strike will include caravans and strike lines staged at Zoom. Supported by the Service Employees International Union, workers representing cities like Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Milwaukee, are fighting for their right to join a union.
The movement claimed to have won more than $ 70 billion in increases for more than 27 million people, lobbying to pass $ 15 an hour minimum wage laws in at least eight states.
Organizers also challenged Joe Biden to raise his salary to $ 15 in his first 100 days. On Thursday, the president-elect unveiled his coronavirus financial aid package that included that mandate. It is not clear, however, the likelihood that the legislation will pass the US Congress, where Democrats have narrow margins in both chambers.
It is past time to raise the minimum wage, so working people earn at least $ 15 an hour.
I hope that Democratic control of the House and Senate will ensure immediate action to make that happen.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 12, 2021
Previously, the president-elect tweeted he expected the House and Senate to pass federal legislation solidifying a $ 15 hourly wage increase.
“I have long said that we need to reward work, not just wealth, in this country,” said Biden at the time. “People from both parties now recognize that it is time to raise the minimum wage so that people who work hard earn at least $ 15 an hour.”
Proponents say the US national minimum wage disproportionately affects black and Latino workers. According to Fight for 15, which cites the Brookings Institution and the Department of Labor for its findings, raising the minimum wage would affect nearly 25 million Americans, fighting the racial and gender wage gap, aggravated by a coronavirus pandemic that cost over 389,000 lives in the USA.
Opponents say that raising the federal minimum wage will result in significant job losses. According to a 2019 Congressional Budget Office report, an increase of $ 15 an hour for just 17 million workers could mean layoffs and closure of facilities for others.
The report estimates that 1.3 million workers could lose their jobs in an average week in 2025.
Still, in places like Chicago and Los Angeles, where workers have successfully struggled to raise the minimum wage, workers will strike in solidarity to demand that all American workers be paid $ 15 an hour.