Fighting for $15: 

A living wage

On November 10, 2015 thousands of minimum wage workers took to the streets at a local McDonald's in Downtown Los Angeles before marching to City Hall. Protestors were equipped with signs, megaphones, drums, and giant balloons with the number “15” painted on, and more.

You can see a video of the protest here.

Who was there protesting?

Among the thousands in attendance, there was a huge variety of people ranging from teenagers, to older men and women, all of which work minimum wage jobs including fast-food, child-care, and more.

All of these people, however, are part of a group called Fight for $15 which is a group of minimum wage workers all protesting for the same cause, to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

• In addition to their main website, some cities have their own Fight for $15 website. Los Angeles’ Fight for $15 website can be found here.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have also become a big part of these protests (they were present at the Los Angeles strike). SEIU is taking this opportunity to make a union appear more attractive to fast-food workers by supporting this cause.

Because the Fighting for $15 group is not only petitioning for a raise in the minimum wage but also for the right for workers to form a union, this is a perfect opportunity for SEIU to show their support. By doing so, it will in turn help them out as well by gaining more members into their union.

Wesley Pinkham “Fight for $15 Los Angeles” Free for Noncommercial Use via Flikr

Who exactly is “Fighting for $15”?

Fighting for $15 is a group of minimum wage workers spread over 190 cities in 33 countries on 6 continents.

“Even though we work hard, we’re forced to live in poverty,” the website says, “it's not right. That's why we strike.”

Without Fighting for $15, a majority of these protests would not have taken place. New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles are just a few locations that this group has taken to the streets to protest to raise the minimum wage.

What are they protesting?

The thousands that gathered in the streets of Downtown L.A. all had the same goal of raising the minimum wage. However, a legislation stating that “minimum wage workers in california will see a bump in hourly pay in 2016, as the rate increases by a dollar to $10 beginning Jan.1.” According to this article in KTLA.

However, that legislation does not give the minimum wage workers the $15 an hour that they want. But the City Council did. According to the same KTLA article, “earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.”

If Los Angeles workers already obtained the $15 an hour minimum that they wanted, why are they protesting?

Although Los Angeles workers have reached a goal of a $15 minimum wage where they live, they are still part of the larger Fight for $15 movement, which is nation-wide. Therefore, this protest in Los Angeles, California was to gain awareness and show support for other California cities as well as cities across the country that have not yet obtained a $15 minimum.

Another huge reason Los Angeles protesters are continuing their rallies and strikes is to gain support for candidates (including local government candidates, state government candidates, and presidential candidates) in the upcoming 2016 elections that agree with their beliefs on the minimum wage and get other people to vote for those candidates.

In other words, the main goal of this fight is for the country, one city at a time.

What were people at the protest saying?

Many news reporters from different stations around California (and some from other sides of the country) were covering this story and therefore many interviews were obtained about people’s opinions on the subject of the minimum wage.

• One person interviewed from The L.A. Times was Frank Trejo. He is 22 and lives with his mother and his brother where he uses his paycheck to help pay the bills. Working at a McDonald’s in the Los Angeles area with a minimum wage not at $15 makes it “hard to save when you have to spend so much.”

• Protester Fannie Velasquez, interviewed by ABC 7, stated in an interview that “we’re trying to get a better future for our families, not only for us. Our kids are growing up and they want to go to college, so we could afford it and give them a better future.” Her reasoning for raising the minimum wage is not for her benefit, but the benefit of her family.

Social media also plays a huge part in these protests because people who cannot attend can still show their support through Facebook and Twitter. One tweet from this Los Angeles protest on November 10, 2015 (shown below) was tweeted by Fight for $15.

Fight for $15 Screenshot via Twitter. Public Domain.

What are the pros of raising the minimum wage?

(Some of this information was taken and adapted from this website)

• Economic Stimulus: meaning that if people are given more money, they will have more money to spend, therefore putting money back into the economy.

• More opportunity for jobs: in addition to spending more money, businesses will be earning more money. If businesses are earning more money they will need more employees to hire to keep up with sales increasing.

• Reduced expense for social programs: many people relying on minimum wage also rely heavily on social programs. If the minimum wage is raised, some of these people may not need to rely on social programs as much, and less tax will be required to keep them running.

• Decreased turnover rate: Employees that are not making enough money to support themselves or especially their families are not as likely to keep their job. If the minimum wage is raised, employees may feel more comfortable in their jobs and will be less likely to quit.

• Inflation: Money inflation happens every year, and in order to keep the minimum wage parallel to inflation, it should be gradually increased on occasion, and it has only risen three times in the past thirty years.

What are the cons of raising the minimum wage?

(Some of this information was taken and adapted from this website)

• Layoffs: Raising the minimum wage brings the possibility of businesses no longer being able to afford the same number of employees considering they will now have to pay more per person.

• Price increase: Or, instead of a business having to lay people off, they may have to raise prices in order to compensate for the higher minimum wage. This could hurt businesses depending on customer reactions which could result in loss of customers.

• Fewer hirings: Similar to the bullet point about layoffs, if a business cannot afford the same number of employees, they will not be able to hire anyone new either.

• Competition intensifying: With an increased minimum wage, people who may be overqualified for a position may still attempt to obtain the job because of the pay, hurting the chances of younger, less experienced workers looking for a first job to get into the work world.