“The Fight for $15” is the campaign by fast food workers around the nation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The call for higher wages would normally rouse corporate America into fighting against protesting workers.
Instead, the movement has led to other low-income Americans fighting against fast food workers pushing for a raise in pay.
In other words, CEOs and other corporate giants are sitting back and watching poor Americans fight over a few dollars more an hour and doing nothing to raise minimum wage.
This is just another issue in a long list of tactics used by corporate America to turn a problem on itself and create internal class warfare while CEOs and bigwigs continue handing out oppressively low wages.
“The Fight for $15” movement started in 2012 and steadily gained speed with union support and a growing number of protesters.
The origin of the movement, in more detail on fightfor15.org, came from disgruntled McDonald’s workers in big cities where minimum wage is simply not enough, no matter how many hours people work.
The debate on whether or not the minimum wage should be raised for fast food workers and even discussion about the rise in federal minimum wage led to a bitter fight between low-wage workers and advertisers.
A recent billboard campaign against the “Fight for $15” and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour paved the way for seriously damaging and unsubstantiated rhetoric.
For example, the billboard features a man raising his headphones to say, “Who needs an education or hard work when Gov. Cuomo is raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour?”
The fact the Employment Policy Institute, the buyer of this ad, would even mention a higher minimum wage would lead to less desire for a strong work ethic or education is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t see how there could be any way a higher minimum wage would lead to more high school dropouts, which has been suggested by critics and is not supported with any evidence.
Other low-income workers who make around $15 an hour are the biggest critics of the push to raise the minimum wage.
According to the Guardian, these workers claim a raise in wages is unfair to skilled workers who have training and education and who have worked their way up to a higher wage.
I can see how this would induce some anger, but come on, people. A raise in the minimum wage is not a devaluation of your current employment position and should not incite a push against a raise in the minimum wage. The raise in minimum wage is for people who also work incredibly hard, long hours in order to make ends meet and can’t because they don’t get paid enough for their work.
A raise in minimum wage allows service industry workers to make a decent living. For those who think these workers should just get more education and training, how can they when they don’t make enough money at their current job in order to save and get more education?
It’s not that these workers don’t want a better life or job — they do. The only way they can make a better life is to get paid a livable wage. And if workers choose to get more education, they might actually have the money to try.
While we sit here arguing, corporate America does nothing. This is class warfare, and low-wage workers are unknowingly willing antagonists in their own battle.
rcm2@indiana.edu
@RachelCMiller1
