Lower wage workers in Atlanta and around the country went on strike Wednesday in their ongoing quest for better pay.
The “Fight for $15” calls for fast-food workers and other service industry employees to walk off the job in protest, and local rallies were set for College Park early Wednesday morning and at Clark Atlanta tonight.
More than two dozen people gathered outside a Burger King in College Park, according to Channel 2 Action News, and organizers expect the number of protesters to increase later in the day.
LaTonya Allen, a 47-year-old home care worker from Stockbridge, said she was defying the rain and 6 a.m. event start time to be there.
“Front and center,” she stated. I think we deserve $15 an hour and a union, and until we get it I will keep fighting for it.”
Allen was at previous wage protests in Atlanta last September and December and she believes momentum is building for the movement which has had some success with higher wages on the West Coast.
“We’re bringing more people into it,” she said, noting that her industry and others have joined with fast food workers.
Allen, who is a caretaker for a woman with cerebral palsy, said she makes $9 an hour, which translates into $523 take home pay every two weeks. Allen feeds and bathes her and lifts her in and out of a wheelchair.
Wage gap between men, women
The wage demonstrations follow up on Equal Pay Day, an event held Tuesday to spotlight the wage gap between men and women in Georgia and across the United States.
The two events have a connection. Women comprise more than two-thirds of minimum wage workers, government data show. And states with higher minimum wage rates have smaller wage gaps. Also, women are disproportionately represented in the fastest-growing low-wage jobs.
Critics say the main reason women earn less than men is choice. They say women opt to work in fields and occupations that tend to be lower paid, that they may work fewer hours, and that they choose to take time off to have and care for children. If those factors are removed, the wage gap is minimal, they contend. Supporters say there is still a disparity, even if it’s less.
Wage gaps in Georgia
Here are some of the differences in pay as cited by the National Partnership for Women & Families using U.S. Census Bureau data:
- Women working full time in Georgia make 83 cents for each dollar paid to a working man, or a $7,458-a-year difference, based on median pay.
- Georgia has the 11th smallest gap among all states. Louisiana (66 cents to the dollar) has the biggest gap, and the District of Columbia has the smallest (91 cents).
- African-American women in Georgia are paid 63 cents for each dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men in Georgia.
- Latinas in Georgia are paid 48 cents for each dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men in Georgia.
- In Georgia, about 541,000 households are headed by women. About 35 percent of women-headed households live below the poverty level.
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