Minimum Wage Increase The nationwide protest on the pay increase began in 2012 while occupy Wall Street was still going on. The New York Communities for Change began to show the struggles of low-income New Yorkers, since then it has snowballed into a protest that has gone through all states in the country. In 190 cities and thousands of low-income workers are protesting to increase the wage to $15 dollars an hour as soon as possible. Protesters took to the streets of New York City and 200 other American cities on tax day, April 15th. They chanted "Fight for $15 on 4/15!" (NEW YORK TIMES) It began with fast-food and retail workers fighting for the 15, but other areas of the work field began to join the movement. Workers that joined the movement were “retail employees at dollar and convenience stores, home health care aides and airport workers who handle baggage, push wheelchairs or clean planes.” (USA TODAY) This becomes a bigger issue because the presidential election is right around the corner and many candidates hope to get some significant work done on the matter. The problem that arises when increasing minimum wage is that smaller business lose out in a great deal of money, profits goes down, more layoffs, and reduced hours increase. The president is trying to increase the federal minimum wage from 7.25 to 10.10 by 2016, but it isn’t making progress because of congress. That does not stop the states from making changes, as of 2015, 29 states minimum wage are above the federal minimum wage and that provides over 609,000 low income workers better pay. Not only has it spiral into that, but more and more cities join the movement and different workers from different fields have began to protest as well. The protest has now 200 cities and college campus. The protest is going strong now because of all these new addition to the cause.