McDonald's employees in Baltimore are protesting low wages on Wednesday and handed fliers to customers and chanted "raise the wage," according to reports.
During the brief demonstration, workers behind the counter continued filling orders for fries and Big Macs.
"We can't survive on $7.25!" the protesters chanted, according to the Post Gazette. Wednesday is the fourth anniversary of the last federal minimum wage increase.
Working full-time for minimum wage, a worker can hope to make about $15,000 in a year, without vacation or sick leave. If an employee with this salary has a child, he or she would fall $800 below the federal poverty line.
The protest, timed to coincide with similar events around the United States, marked the fourth anniversary of the last federal increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, the rate in Maryland and 29 other states.
"I was in that position. I lost two apartments while I was working a minimum wage job," Steve Kelley, with the SEIU, said. "I understand what these guys are going through. It's time to get them some dignity and pay them what their job is worth. I believe their job is worth $15 per hour."
During the Baltimore rally, Molly Porter of Good Jobs Better Baltimore, dressed as Ronald McDonald, performed in a skit that parodied McDonald's Monopoly Sweepstakes, according to the Baltimore Sun. Porter's Ronald McDonald was selected as the winner of $13.8 million, an amount representing the 2012 compensation of McDonald's CEO.
