Atlanta, Worldwide Fast-Food Strike Planned for Thursday

Fast-food workers across Atlanta and the world have not abandoned their demands for a living minimum wage.

On Thursday, May 15 at three Atlanta locations and at countless others across the globe, fast-food workers are planning walk-outs in an expressive demand for fair wages and the right to form a union.

In Atlanta, walk-outs are anticipated at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Boulevard (5:30 a.m.); at Moreland and Glenwood avenues (10 a.m.); and at Cleopas Johnson Park at Fair Street and Northside Drive (1 p.m.).

President Barack Obama has called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and this year signed an executive order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for individuals working on new federal service contracts.

Due to inflation, the current minimum wage in the U.S. makes it worth three or more dollars less than it was in 1968.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.57 million Americans, or 2.1 percent of the workforce were drawing a minimum wage in 2012. Of that number, about 50 percent worked in fast food, hospitality or leisure industries.

Digital Journal reports that only about one-third of minimum wage workers are teenagers, and 62 percent of those workers under 25 years of age are in school. This leaves a group of middle-class teens and married women who live above the poverty line, many working part-time while raising young children.