When fast-food workers first started organizing to raise wages to $15 an hour, most people simply shook their heads. Although some thought the workers deserved a good wage, they wondered how they could ever get these huge corporations to boost wages. Others maybe thought that the price of their hamburgers would go up or else that the work of these people wasn’t worth $15 an hour.

Since then, the cities of Seattle and San Francisco have passed increases in their minimum wage laws that will over several years result in a $15-an-hour rate. And after the Raise UP Massachusetts coalition of community, faith, and labor groups collected 190,000 voter signatures, the Legislature passed a bill to increase the minimum wage here to $11 an hour over the next two years.

Donald Thompson, the CEO and president of the McDonald’s Corp., made $9,496,664 in total compensation last year. That compares to a minimum-wage worker’s salary of $18,720 a year. Hourly, the comparison is $4,565 an hour vs. $9 an hour. Somehow it seems with those kind of salaries at the top, McDonald’s can afford to pay their workers more. If “its easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to get into heaven,” what will the executives have to say when they meet up with see St. Peter?

Last year, McDonald’s set up a website to assist their workers with their financial planning. One question posed to workers was: What is your second job? McDonald’s was being honest in that way because they were acknowledging that a perspon and his/her family cannot thrive on what they were being paid unless they had another job.

Jose Franco took a risk last Thursday. This 19-year-old man, who works at McDonald’s in Codman Square, walked off his job as part of a one-day strike by fast-food workers across the country who were standing up for decent wages. He took this risk because, he said, “My dad’s not around and I have five younger brothers, so I have to help my mother.” Don’t try telling him, “No way, Jose.”

Hamburger-flipping is often used as a disparaging remark for what fast-food workers do. Is that because we would not want to do that low-paid job? Or do we think it’s only worth low wages? These workers are dealing with deep fried oils; they sometimes suffer burns; and they are obliged to be very quick at what they do in meeting corporate standards for a fast-food enterprise.

Garrett Waite walked off his job at the Chelsea Dunkin’ Donuts last Thursday at 6:15 a.m. as a crowd of demonstrators surged into his shop. At first, he just seemed to be kidding with people, asking them if they wanted some coffee and a donut. The walk-off workers leading the rally called on him to come out with them. He asked if his daughter would be disappointed if he lost his pay. They again called on him to come out with them.

Waite yelled for his coat and he walked out. A minute later on the sidewalk outside, he took a bullhorn and said, “I see the hard-working people going to work at 5 a.m. as I’m on my way to work. But why do the big banks and corporations have all the power and we get so low wages?”

With fewer than seven percent of employees having unions to fight with them for fair wages and benefits, we’ve got to find new ways to support decent treatment of hard-working people. That means raising the minimum wage even more; it means supporting the fast-food workers who, when they walk off their jobs, are risking a great deal in The Fight for $15.

Lew Finfer is a Dorchester resident and director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network.