Linda Lee, a home health care worker for more than a decade, joined hundreds of others around the country on Thursday to rally in favor of the idea of boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Lee was one of about a dozen home health care workers who rallied in downtown Vancouver’s Esther Short Park.
The one-day national demonstration was mainly fueled by fast-food workers who called upon corporations, such as McDonald’s, to pay employees $15 an hour. Opponents have said a pay increase would hurt the economy and the ability of businesses to create jobs. The protests, both locally and nationally, are being organized by members of the Service Employees International Union.
The home health care workers in Vancouver said they wanted to add their voice to the struggles that low-wage earners face, no matter the industry.
Lee said despite 15 years of steady work in the business, she still has months where she’s “forced to choose which bills would get paid, and which bills would not.”
It took her nearly a year to save up enough money to buy a vacuum cleaner so she could clean her floors. For the first time in nearly three years, she bought herself some new shoes. And what she’s doing, Lee said, matters and should be valued. One of her elderly clients is on dialysis. Without Lee, the woman would wind up in the hospital more frequently.
“I take pride in the work I do,” Lee said. “I know it makes a difference. I hold her hand while they stick needles in her.”
Organizers say workers went on strike in 150 U.S. cities on Thursday. The National Restaurant Association blasted the action as big labor’s attempt to push its agenda.
In New York City, a couple hundred demonstrators beat drums, blew whistles and chanted in the rain outside a Domino’s for about a half hour.
“Corporations are able to make money — millions and billions of dollars. We should be able to make a decent salary so we can take care of our families,” said Sheila Brown, a mother of four who works at a KFC in New York City.
In Philadelphia, 19-year-old Justice Wallace said she earns $7.50 an hour and was on strike because she wants $15 an hour and a union.
“It’s a poverty wage. We can’t live off of it,” she said.
Debbra Maul, 52, a home health care worker who rallied in Vancouver, said small businesses should consider paying their employees a decent salary “the cost of doing business.” She believes it would create more jobs. If she had disposable income, she said, it would be spent in Vancouver.
“We need to invest in ourselves,” she told the small crowd at the park. “We’re worth $15 an hour.”
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray recently unveiled a plan to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
President Barack Obama has also been working to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The current rate of $7.25 an hour translates to about $15,000 a year, assuming a person works 40 hours a week.
Taking care of people, Lee said, is taxing. And it’s important to attract qualified, caring individuals to the industry.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
