New York state's Fast Food Wage Board hearing in Buffalo Common Council Chambers was filled to near capacity Friday. Among the roughly 100 people scheduled to testify was Crescenzo Scipione, a 23-year-old Burger King worker. Scipione says, he attended the University at Buffalo for two years, before a lack of money forced him to drop out.
"There is little hope for many workers my age. So little in fact that we don't even think about the hopelessness as being unusual. It should be obvious to everyone here that there is little more dangerous to the integrity of a society than wide-spread poverty and hopelessness. If billion dollar companies won't give us a just wage it will fray the social fabric of this country for a generation," Scipione said.
Before the hearing hundreds of workers rallied outside City Hall calling for raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at Buffalo State College, about half of the local workforce have a median wage of less than $15.00 an hour.