Another Rally For Higher Minimum Wage Legislation Held in West Philadelphia
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- May Day, May 1st, is International Workers Day.
Today in West Philadelphia, fast food workers and a state senator marked the occasion with a rally and march in favor of a statewide $15-per-hour minimum wage.
Dozens of people showed up for the event outside a McDonald's restaurant, including Pennsylvania state senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery and Delaware counties, wearing purple shirt in photo), who has introduced a bill at the state level to increase the minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour.
"It would give the minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour, and it would eliminate the tip minimum wage [for restaurant workers and others who get tips], which has not gone up in 21 years. It's $2.83 in Pennsylvania if you have a job where you supposedly get tips," Leach noted.
Fast food worker Ivory Bishop says a whole segment of corporate employees are being forced into poverty, and she says the fight to increase for better working conditions is not just about the money.
"We deserve sick days, we deserve to have vacation days. We deserve to be treated as human beings. Today they treat us like we're not human -- we don't get the proper respect that we need and we deserve," she said.
