MILWAUKEE – On Wednesday, employees at big fast food and retail chains stopped work for the day to demand a higher minimum wage, MSNBC reports. An estimated 150 to 200 workers joined the strike, which sought to increase the minimum wage from Wisconsin’s current $7.25 to $15 per hour. Also at issue was the right to unionize.

Workers from TJ Maxx and McDonald’s were among the employees on strike. “I’m for a minimum wage because I want to live comfortably, pay my bills, provide for my daughter and not feel like I can’t eat next week…because I spent my money on rent,” said Kenny Mack, who works in maintenance worker at McDonald’s and takes home $10 an hour. “People can’t survive on $7.25, especially with their current hours,” he said.,

Over the course of several months, other protests have taken place in Chicago, Detroit, New York and St. Louis. Organizers are asking for a national call for upping the minimum wage to $15 per hour. President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour in his State of the Union address. 

“I think workers definitely felt — seeing New York demand $15, seeing other cities demand $15 — they felt like that was reasonable,” said Jennifer Epps-Addison with Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Epps-Addison also said workers wanted to be able to form a union. “A few weeks previously, they voted and decided they wanted to form their own union, and formed an organizing committee to start building a union campaign,” she said.