Wage slavery?

In late August, thousands of fast-food workers from dozens of cities across the country staged one-day protests to demand a living wage of $15 an hour (the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour), and the right to form unions without retaliation. No organized actions were reported locally, where fast-food workers also rank at the bottom of the wage scale.

According to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fast-food workers have the lowest national median hourly wage ($8.78) of any profession tracked by the government office. Chico’s 2,000 fast-food employees’ median hourly pay is $8.96, and the median annual salary for Chico’s fast-food workers is $18,650.