MIAMI — As fast-food companies scramble to find workers, McDonald’s cooks and cashiers in Miami will go on strike Wednesday, May 19, the day before the company’s annual shareholder meeting, to demand McDonald’s pay every worker a wage of least $15/hr.

Amidst a national reckoning on low pay and poor job quality, striking cooks and cashiers will rally to demand fair wages and a voice on the job for all McDonald’s workers outside of a Fort Lauderdale McDonald’s. They’ll carry signs that say and wear bright red t-shirts that read “Our labor is worth more” and “Respect Us, Protect Us, Pay Us.”

McDonald’s recently announced that it netted nearly $5 billion in profits in 2020 and paid out nearly $4 billion in dividends to its shareholders. Even as elected officials in Washington D.C. resist demands to increase the federal minimum wage to $15/hr, striking cooks and cashiers will remind McDonald’s that it doesn’t have to wait for Washington to raise wages for all workers who wear the company’s uniform — they can pay workers $15/hr now. In a call with investors earlier this year, CEO Chris Kempczinski said, “McDonald’s will do just fine” with increases to the minimum wage.