Fast-food workers strike across the country, dozens arrested
Thousands of people gathered around fast-food restaurants across the country today, and dozens were arrested for civil disobedience as workers in more than 150 cities marched for higher wages.
The fight over raising the minimum wage has heated up, with the White House and labor unions demanding higher wages. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25, and while a vote to raise it stalled in the House last spring, the minimum wage has become a hot-button issue once again ahead of the November midterm elections.
Among workers making above the current minimum wage, fast-food workers are hit particularly hard, earning a median $10 compared with the $18-an-hour median wage those in nonrestaurant industries earn.
One Burger King employee, who said he earned $8.25 an hour, was desperate not to become homeless.
"I'm trying to stay off of welfare," he said.
One mother of five said that she could barely afford to feed her children on her $8-an-hour salary.
The protesters are demanding that the minimum wage be raised to $15 an hour, as well as calling for the right to unionize. Right now, fast-food restaurant employees are not allowed to have a union.
No surprise: It's a debate that has divided an already extremely partisan capital. In a speech before a crowd of minimum-wage-hike supporters on Monday, President Barack Obama said, "There is no denying the simple truth: America deserves a raise," and referred back to his executive order calling for raising the rate to $10.10 an hour.
Other Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, argue that raising the minimum wage is not only a moral necessity but also an economic one, suggesting that lifting people out of poverty will help the nation as a whole. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News on Wednesday, the potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said, "Minimum-wage workers have not had a raise for seven years. CEOs are making a whole lot more money than they did before; the stock market has rebounded far more than it did before. The Fortune 500 companies are making money, and people stuck at the bottom can't even pull themselves out of poverty. Now, my view on this is we raise the minimum wage as one of the ways that we help families that work hard, protect themselves. Give 'em a little chance to build something, to stabilize the — themselves and to go forward."
Republicans and many in the business community argue that raising the rate would hurt the economy, causing more layoffs and higher prices. They cite a report from last February released by the Congressional Budget Office that estimated that raising the rate to $10.10 an hour would lead to roughly 500,000 job cuts.
It should be noted, however, that the same report suggested that raising the rate to $10.10 would help bring almost 1 million Americans out of poverty.
When asked how life would be different if he made $15 an hour, one protester said, "It would just give me a little more money to help fund my dream and move along better."
