McDonald’s Workers Win Pay Raise

By Carla Murphy Apr 01, 2015

McDonald’s will raise its hourly wage for 90,000 workers, The Wall Street Journal reports (paywalled). Beginning July 1, the global fast food company will pay at least a $1-per-hour more at the 1,500 U.S. restaurants that it directly owns, bringing the hourly rate to around $10 by the end of 2016. After a year of employment, workers will be able to annually accrue up to five days of paid time-off. The raise and paid time-off benefit will not apply to franchisee-owned operations, however, which comprise nearly 90 percent of the 14,350 McDonald’s in the U.S.

Yesterday, fast-food workers from the Fight for $15 campaign announced that their next big wave of domestic and international protests will begin on April 15. The fast food worker strikes began in New York City in November 2012 when a couple hundred workers walked off their fast food jobs, not just McDonald’s. Now, according to The New York Times, "organizers say more than 60,000 people will join strikes and protests in 200 cities nationwide."