PROTESTERS against low pay gathered at McDonald’s restaurants in dozens of cities across the United States on Thursday.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s said on Wednesday that it would raise wages for workers at its company-owned US restaurants.

It also said it would offer paid time off for some workers.

It was the first time McDonald’s had set a national policy on wages and came in response to the firm being made primary target for demonstrations for hourly pay of $15 (£10) and recognition for trade unions.

But company-owned outlets represent only about 10 per cent of more than 14,300 locations for the franchise-based firm.

Labour organisers denounced McDonald’s announcement as a mere publicity strategy that did little to improve the situation of workers struggling to get by.

McDonald’s insists that it doesn’t have control of employment decisions at the majority of restaurants, claiming that franchisees “make their own decisions on pay and benefits.”

Union organisers say they’re expanding the scope of the campaign with a day of actions which will include other low-wage workers and demonstrations on college campuses.

Fight for $15 organising director Kendall Fells said protests on April 15 will include actions on about 170 college campuses, as well as cities across the country and abroad.

At a rally announcing the actions in front of a McDonald’s in New York’s Times Square on Thursday, he said home healthcare aides, airport workers, professors, childcare workers and Walmart staff would be among those turning out.

Fight for $15 activist Terrence Wise said that more than 2,000 groups, including Jobs With Justice and the Centre for Popular Democracy, would add their support.

by Our Foreign Desk

“This will be the biggest mobilisation the US has seen in decades,” Mr Wise told the rally.

Mr Fells noted that, while the push began as a fast-food worker movement, it had now morphed into a broader push for low-wage workers and was shifting into a social-justice movement with the involvement of Black Lives Matter activists set to join the April protests.