Pittsburgh Fast Food Workers Fighting For $15 Per Hour
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Workers gathered outside a McDonald's on the North Side Thursday, and their message was loud and clear.
"What do we what? 15! When do we want it? Now! If we don't get it, shut down!"
The fast food employees want to be paid $15 an hour.
"I can't live off $7.25 and I got four kids, so its kind of hard making ends meet, so I'm out here striking trying to make my ends meet a little bit better than what they are," said protester Ronald Poole.
Another person said she was here because of her beliefs.
"I'm out here because I really believe in this movement and everything that it stands for," Lolene Germany said.
There were similar rallies, involving thousands of workers, all across the country.
"You got to stretch every little bit of change you get as far as you can stretch it, and living like that is not cool," said Poole.
"Minimum wage is not helping families, minimum wage is not getting people the opportunities that they need," said Evan Stanton.
While workers said they will continue holding protests until changes are made, some customers Downtown say they think $15 an hour is unreasonable.
"If you want to work your way up while you're in there, that's fine but I don't think the $15 an hour is what they should get as minimum wage of anything like that," David Piland said.
Another customer said he did not think fast food workers should make $15 per hour.
"The service sucks, so thats why I feel like they make what they make, but at the same time, it could be better and maybe if it was better, they would have more of an argument to get a raise in the first place," Brandon Osborne said.
Customers also say they expect higher wages to have a trickle down effect on menus, and that will keep them away.
"If fast food goes up, I just won't go to fast food anymore," Osborne said.
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