Workers Protest For Higher Wages

Fast food workers across the country stepped away from their jobs to fight for higher wages, Thursday.

It was part of the "Fight for 15" campaign, an effort to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Indianapolis workers joined in on the call for change.

Cars honked in support and other drivers slowed to watch as about two dozen people marched with signs that read "Fight for 15" and chanted loudly at the McDonald’s at the corner of 16th and Meridian streets.

Nick Williams was front and center, voicing chants through a megaphone. 

For the past two years, he’s made $7.25 working at the restaurant where he is now protesting and describes the experience.

"Stressful.  Depressing sometimes.  Frustrating," said Williams.  "It ain't easy making $7.25 and bringing in a $400 paycheck because it's gone just like that."

Williams is fighting for his colleagues to make up to $15 an hour.  He says it's fair pay for his work.

"Living from paycheck to paycheck, and you are scratching your head and you have to sacrifice some things because you are not sure if you can pay for this or not, so you be like, 'I can't pay that, so I'm going to have to go with this one,'" he said.  "To me, it shouldn't be that way.  To me, if you love your hard workers, you are not going to mistreat them."

Chaneice Coleman works at the McDonald’s at 38th Street and Post Road.  She has worked for the organization for five years.  She also works at Steak-N-Shake to support her two kids.

Coleman says making $15 an hour would allow her to work just one job and spend more time with her children.

"I'm never home.  How am I supposed to raise kids and keep them out of the streets if I'm not there to be a part of it?," she said.  "It ($15) means I won't have to pick and chose between which bills I have to pay or how my kids are going to eat.  I'll be able to put them in better schools and do a lot more stuff with them."

And she doesn’t understand how a company that makes as much as McDonald’s can pay their employees what she makes.

“When you work for a multibillion dollar corporation, it's not going to hurt you.  Giving us $15, it's not going to break your back," said Coleman. "It's going to help the economy a whole lot more due to the simple fact that now we have money to put back into our communities.  We have money to go buy the stuff that they are advertising.  It won't even be a recession if we have more money to actually buy things.”

"There is a market out there and the market for their skills suggests that they are not as valued as they believe that they are," said Notre Dame Economics Professor Bill Evans.  "The underlying problem is that there are a lot of people who have low skills that are unable to compete successfully for high paying jobs in this job market."

Evans calls the minimum wage a blunt instrument for anti-poverty and says raising it is an effective way to boost salaries for low income workers.

But, he says doing so comes at a cost.

"You are asking one side of the counter to pay for people on the other side," said Evans.  "In a fast food restaurant, you raise the minimum wage, labor costs are going to go up, therefore the cost of the goods or services are going to increase as a result of it."

President Obama has called for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour.

Evans says it may take time, but he believes ultimately the national standard will increase.

"My guess is that at some point we are going to get a pretty big minimum wage hike," he said.  "Maybe not this year, but I would suspect if it doesn't happen before the election, it will happen soon after it."

But, until then, Coleman is going to continue to fight and hopes Thursday’s protests in Indianapolis and around the country send a message to employers.

"I hope that it just wakes them up," she said.  "We are tired of having the scraps that are given to us and still not being able to afford our bills, be able to take care of our families.  It's not fair."