Bernie Sanders Calls on McDonald’s to Raise Minimum Wage to $15

In a tweet posted on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) called upon McDonald’s to raise the minimum wage for its workforce to $15 per hour. In a letter addressed to CEO Steve Easterbrook, Sanders mentioned the recent decisions by Amazon, Whole Foods and the Walt Disney Corp. to raise their minimum wage to $15, citing the company’s $5.1 billion profit in 2017 as evidence of McDonald’s ability to follow suit.

In the letter, Sanders said, “If McDonald’s raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour and respected the constitutional rights of your workers to form a union, it would set an example for the entire fast food industry to follow.”

In response to Sanders’ comments, a McDonald’s spokesperson told CNBC, “Our commitment to the communities we serve includes providing opportunities for restaurant employees to succeed at McDonald’s and beyond with world-class training and education programs to help them build the skills needed for today’s workforce.”