Have you heard about what's happening on April 15? Because it's not just Tax Day.
The biggest protest ever to raise the wage is happening on April 15. And Upworthy is covering it all day.
On April 15, 2015, fast-food workers, child care workers, airport workers, and even adjunct professors are joining together all across the United States.
Minimum-wage workers will protest in various cities in the U.S. (and the world!).
They started organizing in November 2012 with only 200 workers in New York City. That grew to over 150 cities and thousands of minimum-wage workers in 2013. In 2014, the thing went global, with actions in 33 countries across six continents.
And what happens in 2015 ... that's up to everybody who participates!
What do they want? A livable wage of $15 an hour and a union. When do they want it? As soon as humanly possible. That's what the Fight for $15 is all about!
So, like, yesterday would be nice.
See, these employees want to make enough to live, not just scrape by.
These are actual fast-food strikers who are living on the minimum wage. Note that they aren't just bored teenagers trying to make a little extra money to pay for Pokemon cards or whatever it is that teenagers are into these days. They are adults.
I just checked my watch and it's minimum-wage fact-o'clock, so let's get real:
- At a whopping 75%, adults are the majority of minimum-wage earners.
- At least 70% of those minimum-wage-earning adults have a high school degree or some college under their belts.
- The majority of adults making minimum wage? Adult women, at 48.5%.
Here's some fancy pie charts to illustrate this point further, just in case you're into pie. Or charts.
Just like this, but tastier and full of facts about the minimum wage. Mmm.
McDonald's made some progress here when it announced a raise for employees earlier this year. But it's not enough.
This might sound like cause for celebration. But what you might not have heard is ... that raise? Well, it's only for corporate workers, not the fast-food crew working down at your local McD's.
Only 10% of McDonald's employees will actually see that raise on their paychecks. That means roughly 1.6 million people will see a remarkable increase of zero whole dollars, folks.
Like, whoa, McDonald's, slow it down with your tons and tons of generosity you've got going on right now, am I right?
So on April 15, people are joining together in the biggest protest yet to demand more ... in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and maybe even your town (if you're not from the previously listed ones, of course).
And Upworthy is going to cover the entire thing. On Twitter. And from the ground. All day.
And we want you to be there with us.
Watch the @Upworthy Twitter account on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, to see live updates of the protests as they happen.
We'll be talking to folks on the ground as well as giving you the rundown with a slew of smart, labor-focused partners on why this is so, so important right now. We might even do a little Q&A in the middle of it all, just like a regular ol' #UpChat. You remember those, right? Those are fun.



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.