San Diego Workers Join Nationwide Minimum Wage Protest

“I wouldn’t be able to survive with that”, said Lorry. “I think that would start to make more financial sense, even in the lower volume stores we have around here”.

A bill introduced in April by Madison Democratic state Rep. Melissa Sargent would raise Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 incrementally over six years.

“A lot of businesses are scared – [a] $1 an hour increase for a full-time employee will end up costing each employer actually about $2,500 per employee, so that’s pretty significant”, said Stuart Waldman who leads a business advocacy group in California. Tuesday was a national rally day for a higher minimum wage; the state’s minimum wage is now $8.75 an hour and will be $9 an hour on December 31. However, remember that every political climate is different, and after the San Diego City Council approved the minimum wage increase in 2013, a group called the San Diego Small Business Coalition gathered more than 30,000 signatures to send it to the ballot.

People attend the strike in support of a $15-per-hour minimum wage in NY City, the United States, November 10, 2015.

“It was either buy diapers and feed him or go to school”, she said.

At a rally Tuesday in NY City where Cuomo officially announced the pay increase for state workers, he said other states will follow New York’s example.

Westley Williams works at McDonald’s in Miramar and now makes $9.25 an hour.

“I think this is one of the basic steps that we need to take in order help folks who are trying to lift themselves out of poverty”, said Paul Mersfelder, 30, of Beacon. Now, the governor supports a $15-an-hour minimum wage for all workers.

Standing in the rain outside Youngstown City Hall this morning, local union leaders say a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage lets you feed your family.

The minimum wage increase for the state workforce was hailed by the Civil Service Employees Association, the state’s largest public-sector union.

“Our labor agreements already put City employees ahead of the State’s minimum wage phase-in for NYC employees, through the end of our contracts”, said spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick.

“We’re working toward a just society, and there’s momentum across the country”, Young said.