Economy

Fast-Food Workers to Press Presidential Candidates for $15 Wage

Paul Ausick

Published: January 15, 2016 12:10 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 2:58 pm

Demonstrations and job actions have been taking place around the United States for more than three years now as fast-food workers and other low-paid workers seek to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Now, these workers are targeting presidential candidates beginning Sunday in Charleston, S.C.

The group, identified only as Fight for $15, intends to “hammer home to candidates that the nearly 64 million Americans paid less than $15 an hour are a voting bloc that cannot be ignored.” The group has adopted a five-point platform:

• A $15 hourly wage and union rights
• Affordable child care
• Quality long-term care
• Racial justice
• Immigration reform

Fight for $15 said these issues have been identified by underpaid workers as “key factors in whether they will go to the polls for a candidate.”
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The planned strike in Charleston is centered around the Sunday debate among Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders. The debate is co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus and comes on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The next Republican presidential candidate debate is scheduled for Manchester, N.H., on February 6.

According to Fight for $15, 46% of American workers are paid less than $15 an hour, including 48% of women, 54% of African Americans and 60% of Latinos.