This week fast-food workers held protests in cities nationwide, demanding their pay be increased to $15/hour. In Southfield, Mich., the city’s Democratic mayor-elect, Ken Siver, joined the protests, telling Fox 2 Detroit, “You can’t live on the current minimum wage, how can you support a family?”

Fox 2 Detroit reporter Roop Raj asked one of the protesters, “Some people say that paramedics don’t even make $15 an hour and they save lives, so why should fast-food workers get that?”


The protester, Lakecha Jackson, replied, “Because we do too much; we do more than we get paid.”

Another protester told Raj, “We can’t live off the minimum wage, it’s just not possible.” Asked to describe a typical day, the protester said, ”Me doing everything from running the drive through, to washing dishes, to prepping food — it’s just a lot of work.”

The protesters are also demanding union representation.