INSTITUTE INDEX: Fast-food workers strike again

Number of fast-food workers and their allies arrested in nationwide protests Sept. 4 demanding raises and union organizing rights: 500

Number of cities where the sit-ins took place: about 150

Number of cities where home care workers joined the protests: 6

Number of cities where protesters were arrested: 3 dozen

Number of protesters arrested outside a McDonald's in Charleston, South Carolina, where a passerby said "this sort of thing doesn't happen": 18

Number of people arrested during the sit-in in Durham, North Carolina: 26

Hours that Tina Watson, a manager at a McDonald's in New Zealand, flew to take part in the Durham protest: 13

Minimum hourly wage in her country: $14.25

Hourly wage U.S. fast-food workers are seeking: $15

Current average fast-food worker hourly wage: $9

The federal hourly minimum wage: $7.25

Amount to which President Obama wants to raise the federal hourly minimum wage: $10.10

Level to which Seattle recently increased its hourly minimum wage: $15

Level to which the hourly minimum wage would increase under proposals being considered in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles: $13

Percent of U.S. fast-food workers who receive some form of public assistance, such as food stamps or Medicaid: 52

Amount that assistance costs U.S. taxpayers each year: $7 billion

McDonalds' net income in 2013 alone: over $5.5 billion

Total number of one-day protest actions by fast-food workers held to date: 7

Amount the Service Employees International Union has spent underwriting the movement, known as Fast Food Forward: more than $10 million

Month in which the National Labor Relations Board ruled that McDonalds could be treated as a joint employer with franchisees in labor complaints, which could boost workers' ability to unionize: 7/2014

(Click on figure to go to source.)