Low-wage workers push for $15

On Tax Day, thousands of low-wage workers around the country are protesting for a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the opportunity to form a union.

The Fight for $15, which began in November 2012 with a series of fast food protests, is expanding beyond restaurant workers to Walmart employees, home care workers, child care workers, building services workers, adjunct professors, and college students.

Thousands of low-wage workers in 230 cities around the country are protesting Wednesday in what organizers are calling the “largest-ever” nationwide strike.

The workers are calling for a “livable wage.”

“They shouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet,” said Lisa Brown, executive vice president at the local branch of the Service Employees International Union.

“CEOs make millions in wages, but they think it’s horrific that people are asking for $15 an hour,” she added.

In Washington, D.C., a group of mostly home care workers is protesting for higher wages. 

The SEIU and DC Working Families announced Wednesday at the protest they are collecting signatures for a 2016 ballot initiative to raise the local minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“You’re going to have to demand it,” Delvone Michael, executive director of DC Working Families, shouted to the protesters. “We can’t take no for an answer.”

Michael said the minimum wage would be more than $18 an hour if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but states and local jurisdictions can set higher rates of pay for local employees.

The current minimum wage in the District is $8.25 an hour, but it is set to jump to $9.50 an hour in July.

The protesters say this is not enough money to help them support their families.

“What people make now is barely enough to get them through the month,” Michael said. “They don’t have enough money to take their kids out to a movie, or take them out to a ballgame, or buy them some popcorn or ice cream.”