fell to 63 toi.2%. that means 200,000 americans literally gave up looking for work. that is sort of the bad news when you pull the curtain back and see what s behind those headline numbers, john. all right, allison. those are the numbers. every number, though, is a real person. the quality of jobs may, in fact, trump any measure of the quantity of jobs. we ve seen fast food workers around the country walking off the job to demand higher wages. you were at some of these protests, and you have a look at some of the people behind the protests and behind the jobs numbers we re seeing. that s a really good point, because many of the workers i spoke to told me how hard it is to survive on minimum wage especially if you re the bread winner trying to feed a family. i spoke with two fast-food workers saying they ve had trouble just making ends meet, even though they ve got a job. my name is shaneda simon. i work at kfc in brooklyn and i
my name is shenita simon and i work at kfc in brooklyn and i make $8 an hour. i i make $9 an hour. tale of two people and one story. they re just two of the 3 million workers living on a fast food wage. pay my light bill, should i pay gas? i never could pay it all at once. pamela loves her job. fries, fries, fries. says she has to prioritize. right now the gas is off. i have had lights to be cut off, too, but it is kind of hard to live without lights. how do you make ends meet? say you go to the grocery store. i have to sacrifice. i eat today and my husband eats tomorrow or just to make sure my kids eat. they both work less than 40 hours a week. neither of them get benefits. kind of hard to build a future if you don t know what it
unions without retaliation. alison kosik is live at a wendy s now and she joins me now. good morning, alison. good morning, carol. some of those protests here in new york started this morning and other protests started across the country, as you said, thousands of these fast food workers are expected to walk off the job today as a protest for higher wages. they are looking to get paid double. more than double the federal minimum wage. the federal minimum wage sitting at 7:25 right now. as you are about to see in this piece, some of these fast food workers say they re barely making ends meet. i work at kfc in brooklyn and i make $8 an hour. my name is pamela powell, i make $9 an hour. reporter: tale of two people, but one story. they re just 2 of the 3 million workers living on a fast food