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 The union-backed "Fight for $15" campaign has expanded since its
inception in 2012 from a movement mostly centered on the fast-food
industry to encompass other low-wage sectors, such as home health
care, retail outlets and hospitals.
Much of the attention in Thursday's rallies, in what some organizers
called a national day of action, was on McDonald's Corp <MCD.N>
fast-food eateries, the world's biggest restaurant chain by revenue.
Demonstrators said they want to get to a $15 minimum in any they
can, whether that happens at the state or city level or even via
individual companies.
In New York City, demonstrators rallied in Times Square and later
protested outside a Republican gala featuring the party's three
candidates for the 2016 presidential race, while in Los Angeles
protesters held aloft large balloons and marched behind a banner
that read, "McJobs hurt us all."
Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke at the rally in Times Square, on a day
that also saw Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and
Bernie Sanders express support for the marchers.
 On the West Coast, organizers said more than 2,000 people marched
through downtown Los Angeles.
Anggie Godoy, 20, a cashier at a McDonald's in Los Angeles, said the
campaign to raise wages must be national in scope.
"We know that it's not just New York and California struggling, but
it's everyone in our nation," she said.
And even though California and New York have recently passed
legislation to raise their state minimums to $15, protesters said
those measures aren't enough because both states will take time to
phase in the increases.
Similar demonstrations in dozens of other U.S. cities, including
Chicago and Miami, drew thousands of workers to the streets,
organizers said.
Protests were also held overseas, including at a McDonald's at
Disneyland Paris and outside the headquarters for the South Korea
division of the fast-food giant, organizers said.
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Last year, McDonald's raised its employees' base pay at
company-owned U.S. outlets by $1 over the locally mandated minimum
wage. That measure does not affect the employees of the almost 90
percent of McDonald's restaurants run by franchisees.
McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb also cited the company's
participation in a program that helps employees earn a high school
diploma and obtain tuition assistance for college.
Earlier this month, both California and New York enacted $15-an-hour
minimum wage laws, going beyond the federally mandated $7.25-an-hour
wage floor that has been in effect nationally since 2009.
Opponents have argued that raising the minimum wage puts an undue
strain on businesses still struggling to rebound from a prolonged
U.S. economic slump.
Supporters say such measures are necessary to help low-paid workers
who have been slipping into poverty due to stagnant earnings and
rising living expenses.
Kendall Fells, organizing director of "Fight for $15," said the
movement combines a push to raise wages and unionize low-paid
workers.
"Workers demand $15 and they want a union, they don't care how it
happens," he said.
(Reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles;
Additional reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Steve
Gorman and Leslie Adler)
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