Thursday in 60 cities across the country, fast food and retail workers staged a one-day strike demanding higher wages and the right to form a union without retaliation. The strikes affected nearly 1,000 fast food chains, including McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s, and inspired members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey to join strikers.
A campaign that started as a 200-person strike in New York City last November is now highlighting the devastating effects of the recession on job growth. Though the unemployment rate continues to fall, the majority of new jobs—58%—are considered low-wage. Median wages for 70% of Americans have stayed completely flat for a decade now, even as productivity gains concentrate more and more wealth in the hands of wealthiest few.
The median wage for fast food workers is $8.78, just above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and less than a living wage in many states. Even if workers work full time (40 hours a week), a minimum wage job adds up to just $15,000 dollars a year. But few get assigned that much work. As a McDonalds worker told the Associated Press,”Forty? Never. They refuse to let you get to that (many) hours.”








