Hundreds March From Flatbush Avenue McDonald’s To “Fight For $15” Minimum Wage
Yesterday was Equal Pay Day, as well as Tax Deadline Day, but the giant rally/protest that wound between the Fulton Mall area to various locations in Manhattan was for a different salary-related cause: a push for a $15 minimum wage.
The Fight For $15 campaign kicked off its New York City rally outside the McDonald’s at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension at 6:30am Wednesday morning, April 15, with hundreds of Brooklynites — workers and elected officials — coming armed with placards and even musical instruments.
“On Tax Day, fast-food workers from Pittsburgh to Pasadena will walk off the job,” said organizers in a statement, “while adjunct professors, home care, childcare, airport, industrial laundry and Walmart workers will march and rally in what will be the most widespread mobilization ever by US workers seeking higher pay.”
The protests come on the heels of announcements from major retail chains McDonald’s, Walmart, and Target that they would raise their wages to more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. It also comes just over a year after Seattle became the first major city to institute a $15 minimum wage.
New York’s minimum wage is $8.75.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was among those who showed up in solidarity with the cause. “$15 and a union is an honest request for the honest labor our low-wage workers put in every single day serving our city and our nation,” Adams said. “I am proud to stand with the tens of thousands that protested and rallied today, and will continue to do so, so we may achieve economic and social justice together.”
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also championed the cause of supporting low-wage workers, telling Capital New York that:
“America is going through a crime wave of wage theft, particularly for low-wage workers who live hand-to-mouth and can barely afford to support themselves,” Schneiderman [said]. “It’s really a two-tier struggle. While we’re fighting to make sure that the minimum wage is paid, I’m also a very strong supporter of raising the minimum wage.”
Schneiderman argued that if minimum wage growth had kept pace with national productivity growth since 1968, workers would actually be earning at least $17 an hour.
“So what we’re looking at is trying to address a wrong that has been done over the last few decades, where the wealth in America has grown astronomically,” he said. “But there’s been a systematic shifting of the wealth away from the working families that used to be the bedrock of America.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has previously expressed support for a $13 per hour minimum wage, while Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed an $11.50/hour minimum for New York City (and $10.50/hour for upstate New Yorkers).