 NEW YORK (AP) — Police handcuffed several protesters in New York and Detroit on Thursday as they blocked traffic in the latest attempt to escalate their efforts to get McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food companies to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. Beginning the first Jan. 1 after the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour for smaller employers, the minimum wage is indexed annually for inflation. Many fast-food workers do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which adds up to about $15,000 a year for 40 hours a week. The idea of civil disobedience arose in July when 1,300 workers held a convention in Chicago. Notes 
 
 1 American Samoa: The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-28) sets minimum wage rates within American Samoa and provides for additional increases in the minimum wage of $0.50 per hour each year on May 25, until reaching the minimum wage generally applicable in the United States. 10 New York: The new minimum wage varies across the state based on geographical location and, in New York City, employer size. The protests, which are planned by labor organizers for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of the "Fight for $15" campaign.
– Dozens of protesters have been arrested in at least two cities so far today during nationwide protests seeking $15 an hour for fast-food workers, reports the AP. At least three people in McDonald's work clothes in New York's Times Square and about two dozen demonstrators at a Detroit Mickey D's were handcuffed and taken away because they were blocking traffic, cops say. Protesters in about 150 cities are participating in the Fight for $15 campaign, according to union organizers who planned the event. The current minimum hourly wage in Michigan is $8.15; in New York, it's $8, reports the National Conference of State Legislatures. About 100 protesters—some wearing T-shirts that simply said "$15," as per Mashable—convened in the parking lot of a Detroit McDonald's, spilling out onto a nearby street, where police reportedly asked them to leave, reports the Detroit News. When they wouldn't, the cuffs came out. "They were in a traffic lane … and preventing people from getting by,” one local sergeant says. “There was no force used by our officers and no resistance from the protesters.” Although the National Restaurant Association says unions are just trying to "boost their dwindling membership," protesters say their beef is strictly with not being able to afford to live. A Detroit mom tells the News that she's "asking for a living wage, not a minimum wage—I have to put gas in my car. I don’t want to have to decide if I’m going to pay [the energy bill] or my rent."