More than 1,000 demonstrations are scheduled for Monday, covering all 50 states under the “More than Billionaire Workers” banner.
Protesters are calling for stronger workers protection, the end of corruption in all people in fully funded schools, health care and housing, as well as businesses, attacks on marginalized communities, and federal overreach under the Trump administration, Al Jazeera reported.
In New York, hundreds of people gathered outside the Trump Tower to chant to resign to Trump’s resignation, calling the president a fascist. When the brass band was played, workers embraced signs demanding a living wage and universal health care.
Giovanni Uribe, along with one fair wage, a restaurant worker advocacy group, told Al Jazeera’s Kristen Salumi that he came out to protest against the billionaires who stripped the rights of workers.
“New York City service workers are the backbone of this city,” he said. “The National Restaurant Association is the number one opponent fighting to keep Submanimum wages intact, so there is no need to pay workers a minimum wage to survive.
The federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25 an hour. This is a number that has not been raised since 2009, partly due to the successful lobbying of industry groups. Tip workers like wait staff have a federally-duty “subminim” wage set in 1991 of $2.13, which must be offset to reach a minimum of $7.25 in 1991, but advocates say it often results in wage theft.
Although the minimum wage is high in some states, New York City is currently at $16.50, this figure is often far below the living wage.
According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, one adult without children needs an hourly wage of around $33 in NYC to cover the average base cost. Mississippi has the lowest cost of living in the country and no state minimum wage, so it has a living wage of $20.75, almost three times the minimum wage.
In downtown Chicago, thousands have been found to demonstrate that they are opposed to Trump’s promise to target Chicago next, in a development similar to that of the two other Democrat-run cities in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke to the crowd and vowed that Chicago would resist federal invasion.
MNA