McDonalds' Workers Strike In Hopes For Better Pay And Wages In NYC

Fast food employees continue to strike for better pay and wages as employees from McDonalds, Dominos, Burger King and other food chains in New York City Thursday strike against their respective corporations.

In a statement, McDonald's said the company and its franchises "work hard every day to treat McDonald's employees with dignity and respect. Employees are paid competitive wages and have access to a range of benefits to meet their individual needs. Employees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage of a variety of training and professional development opportunities."

With the economy where it's at, it has become a problem to get competitive-paying jobs. The employees are paid minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. The workers from McDonalds are demanding to be paid $15 an hour.

Dominos employee Noel Scott told CNN that he has to juggle between three jobs to get by.

While minimum wage in New York is $7.25 an hour, food service workers may earn $4.65 an hour because their total compensation includes expected tips.

"You don't have a life when you get paid this little. My body is breaking down," Noel Scott told CNN. "And with no benefits, we can't afford to get sick."

"Enough's enough," 24-year-old Alterique Hall, one of the McDonald strikers said. "Low-paid workers are sick and tired of being sick and tired at the end of the day. We get a pat on the back saying, 'You'll be fine, you'll make it somehow."" He says he can't make ends meet on the $8-per-hour he's paid, and often relies on his grandmother and aunt for meals.

The strikers is asking employers to pay workers a minimum of $15 an hour, and for the right to organize without retaliation and intimidation. Currently, the median pay for the nearly 50,000 fast food workers in New York City is $9 an hour, or $18,500 a year, according to the New York Labor Department. That's about $4,500 lower than Census Bureau's poverty income threshold level of $23,000 for a family of four.

"Any additional labor cost can negatively impact a restaurant's ability to hire or maintain jobs," said Scott DeFife, executive vice president of policy and government affairs at the National Restaurant Association.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, workers are protected from retaliation as long as they work in concert with at least one other employee to try to change their working conditions. However, they can be permanently replaced if they strike for purely economic reasons.