McDonald’s Corporation, which has largely been the catalyst for, as well as the target of, the Fight for $15 along with a fast food unionizing drive by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has advised the National Restaurant Association that it will no longer support efforts opposing an increased minimum wage. In its letter to the NRA, McDonalds claimed that their average starting wage (in corporate stores) exceeds $10 per hour and about its franchise owners, “believes the average starting wage offered by those independent business owners is likely similar.” After learning that McDonalds had folded, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry confirmed it’s never enough saying, “Now, McDonald’s needs to use its profits and power to give thousands of cooks and cashiers across the country a real shot at the middle class by raising pay to $15 an hour and respecting its workers’ right to a union.” Ironically, McDonalds change comes as a new rift appears to have opened within the democratic caucus over minimum wage legislation. Its reported that several red state representatives threatened to vote against Representative Bobby Scott’s Raise The Wage Act, a one-size-fits-all wage bill (H.R. 582) that hikes the federal minimum to $15/hour and ties it to inflation going forward. Some BlueDog democrats are concerned an excessive increase in the minimum could end up costing them their congressional seat! One cannot give in to a bully!