OAK BROOK, Ill. — Protestors demanding higher wages gathered at McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. Wednesday and Thursday before the chain’s annual shareholder meeting.
Last month, McDonald’s U.S. announced plans to pay its U.S. employees $1 more than the locally mandated minimum wage and raise wages to $10 an hour by the end of 2016. But, this week, employees demanded the “living wage” of $15 per hour. “The shareholders of McDonald’s are investing money into a million-dollar big-time boss — why can’t they invest that money into the workers?” a long-time employee, Tyre Johnson told BBC News.
McDonald’s responded to the protest with the following statement to BBC News: “Today’s protest in Oak Brook is the latest instance in an $80-million publicity campaign organized and paid for by the Service Employees International Union and its members,” wrote a company spokesperson. “McDonald’s and its more than 3,000 independent franchisees are standing strong and together in the face of this union attack.”
