"Strike For a Higher Pay Day"
Haley Hill
By: Alanna Petroff and James O'Toole
Article: "Waves of fast food strikes hits 60 cities" CNN
The article written by Alanna Petroff and James O'Toole states that across the country the average wage for workers working in a fast food chain is about nine dollars an hour. This all adds up to about $18,500 per year. Unfortunately that pay is about $4500 less than the Census Bureau's poverty threshold income of $23000 for a family of four. These protestors are asking for $15 an hour.
This strike was the largest strike ever to hit the fast food industry. With major cities included in these strikes like Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, LA, Memphis, and tons more; the number of protestors came in thousands starting Thursday. Community leaders and politicians joined in on the rallies everywhere.
Fast Food Forward, a clergy group who is one of the supporters of these protests has been in more light since last November when the protests gained more momentum. Retail workers from Macy's, Sears, Walgreens, and Victoria's Secret joined in on thursday's protests.
Earlier this week they caught the attention of the White House. The low-wage workers were featured in a blog post by Gene Sperling which stated that Obama had a goal of raising the minimum wage which is part of his economic goal.
The point of this article is to spread awareness of the fact that there are people who should be getting paid more for their labor. Although I did not know much about this topic before writing about it, I do believe that making a higher pay will have a much better impact on our economy. By raising the wages of our workers we are increasing federal spending while decreasing our poverty threshold. However, we are increasing taxes to the government but the companies will suffer, having to charge more money for their food/products. I believe either way it will eventually create a stable economy.
I also believe that paying these workers more will stimulate the economy. It will decrease their dependence on government funded aid such as Welfare and food stamps, and will also allow them to spend more money on other luxuries such as going out to eat or going to the movies, further stimulating the economy.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the legal minimum wage should be raised. However, I wonder how raising minimum wage could effect levels of inflation. As long as raising the minimum wage acts only as a stimulant and doesn't inflate prices, I believe this plan will be very beneficiary.
ReplyDeleteI see where you are coming from and yes, raising their pay will decrease poverty. However, I believe that raising it that much is not fair to the Americans who work on the professional level and get paid about the same. I also think this will not help the economy because people are not going to want to pay a higher price for fast-food that is supposed to be cheap.
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