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CHICAGO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Two days after the Chicago City Council voted for a $13-an-hour minimum wage, fast-food workers rallied Thursday for a statewide increase to $15. Home healthcare workers also participated in the early morning demonstration. And Darryl Eatmonds, the only employee on duty at a BP station across the street, shut down the pumps and joined the protest.
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"It's time for a change. Something needs to happen," he told WBBM-AM, saying he expected he would face disciplinary action.
A bill that passed the state Senate would gradually increase the minimum wage in Illinois to $11 an hour. But no action is expected in the General Assembly until next year.
The rally began at about 7 a.m. at a McDonald's in the Loop in downtown Chicago. Protesters planned to march to other restaurants and through the district during the morning.
The ordinance that passed Tuesday by a 44-5 vote would raise the minimum wage from its current level of $8.25 an hour in Chicago to $13 by 2019 with the first increase next year. It was proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
"An increase in the minimum wage will positively impact nearly one-third of the entire workforce of Chicago," Alderrman John Pope said.
Alderman Walter Burnett said 410,000 people in the city now hold minimum-wage jobs.
