Fast food workers will head south to continue their protests for higher wages and for the right to organize without retaliation.
On August 29, workers will gather in cities such as Memphis, Raleigh, N.C., and Tampa, asking for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hours, cnn.com reports.
Currently, the median pay for the fast food workers is just over $9 an hour, or about $18,500 a year. This amounts to $4,500 lower than the Census Bureau’s poverty income threshold level of $23,000 for a family of four.
Most who work in the fast food industry at companies like Mc Donald’s, Wendy’s and major retailers like Wal-mart are forced to work two and three jobs to make ends meet and care for their families. Workers have protested too, poor working conditions.
Over the past several months, hundreds of workers have walked off their jobs calling for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care.
The fast food and retail industry is making record profits and paying CEOs and other executives large pay packets, while its workers are forced to rely on public assistance just to afford the basics, says Fast Food Forward, a union and community group backing some of the protests.
