Tuesday’s National Day of Action will be exactly one year from the 2016 Presidential Election Day.
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Fast-food workers and their supporters in Madison protested outside a McDonald’s on the city’s south side Tuesday afternoon.
The move will affect about 10,000 state workers who now make less than $15 an hour.
According to the organizers, fast-food employees in a few 270 cities will be joined by workers in another 230 cities from other industries that typically pay low hourly wages, including home and child care, Reuters reports.
No other state has enacted a $15 public sector minimum wage.
“A lot of businesses are scared – [a] $1 an hour increase for a full-time employee will end up costing each employer actually about $2,500 per employee, so that’s pretty significant”, said Stuart Waldman who leads a business advocacy group in California.
Approximately 25 demonstrators gathered outside the State College Municipal Building on South Allen Street, dawning posters that read “Nursing Home Workers Fighting for 15”, and chanting in support of raising the minimum wage. Republican Leader John Flanagan reacted to Governor Cuomo’s plan to submit legislation to raise the minimum wage for all workers in the state when the new session starts in January. Williams previously worked at Walmart for seven years and was laid off at a time when his pay was $12.75 an hour.
The Obama administration has been pushing for a more modest increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, but has been unable to get that through Congress. “This is about basic fairness and basic justice”, he said of the push to raise the minimum wage both in NY State and across the country.
“What people don’t realize is that when minimum wage goes up, my prices go up”. “New York is the progressive capital of the nation”.
Evette Gardner, a Family Dollar employee, said she got involved in the Fight for 15 movement because she wants to help those who are now struggling in minimum wage jobs. Several bay area cities are moving toward $15 per hour, but not immediately.
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“The reason I can’t be is we are a country that’s being beaten on every front, economically, militarily”, Trump replied. Now, the governor supports a $15-an-hour minimum wage for all workers.
