Number of U.S. cities where fast food workers waged strikes this week as part of a campaign to raise wages: 58
Number of those cities in the South: 11*
Number of workers in the Triangle region of North Carolina, the state with the nation's lowest unionization rate, who joined the strike: about 50
Hourly pay they're demanding: $15
Current federal minimum wage: $7.25
Median hour pay nationally for fast food workers: $8.94
Annual salary that amounts to for someone working full-time, which many fast food workers do not: about $18,500
The Census Bureau's poverty-level income threshold for a family of four: $23,000
Value of the U.S. fast-food sector: $200 billion
Profits earned last year alone by McDonald's: $5.47 billion
Lucia Gareia Legua's weekly earnings from her job at a McDonald's in Raleigh, N.C., a wage that forces her to rely on food stamps to feed her three children: about $200
As of 2005, number of children of McDonald's employees in Alabama who were enrolled in Medicaid, the taxpayer-supported public health care program for the poor: 1,931
Number of children of McDonald's employees in Florida who were enrolled in Medicaid in 2005: 8,100
Of those workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage, percent who are at least 20 years old: 88
Who are at least 40 years old: 35.5
Who are women: 56
Who have children: 28
Who work 35 hours per week or more: 55
Since 1990, percent decline in manufacturing's share of U.S. jobs: 50
Percent increase in food service jobs over the same period: 25
* Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Durham, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C,; Gretna, La.; Houston; Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans; Raleigh, N.C.
(Click on figure to go to source.)
INSTITUTE INDEX: Striking for fast food justice
August 30, 2013
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Fast food workers went on strike in cities across the country this week to demand higher pay. (Graphic from the SEIU.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.