Many arrests in minimum wage protests

Thousands walk off job

blocking the drivethru for about 30 minutes.

In Massachusetts, a state senator was among nearly three dozen people arrested after they sat down on a Cambridge street during a demonstration

About 25 of the 350 protesters in New York City were arrested. One protester, Flavia Cabral, 55, struggles to make ends meet with two part-time jobs. “All these people don’t have savings because we’re working check to check,” Cabral said.

Fast-food worker Alvin Major, 51, said he supports four children and a wife recovering from cancer.

“Fifteen dollars is just a number,” he said. “If we could get one dollar and one dollar could take care of our health care, housing, food and everything, that’s what we need.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation in April that will gradually raise New York’s minimum wage, which will rise to $15 in New York City by the end of 2018 and will rise to $12.50 in the rest of the state by 2020, eventually reaching $15.

Detroit police say they arrested 40 protesters who blocked traffic. And nearly three dozen protesters have been arrested in Cambridge, Mass. In the San Francisco Bay Area, ride-hailing drivers, fast-food employees, airport workers and others shut down an Oakland intersection.

Raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $12 would lift pay for 35 million workers, or 1 in 4 employees nationwide, according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

The conservative-leaning Employment Policies Institute think tank said it believes minimum wage increases will result in lost jobs, reduced hours and business closures.