Thousands of fast food workers are striking across the country for a higher wage. The protests bring together workers from various fast food chains as they seek a wage of $15 an hour.

The nationwide strike was announced on Labor Day, according to The New York Times, and called for fast food workers to protest for a wage of $15 an hour. Union organizers hope to put pressure on the corporations to increase the wages of hundreds of thousands underpaid workers around the nation through strikes, sit-ins and the cooperation from other low-wage workers like home-care workers.

Backed by the Service Employees International Union, which represents health care workers and janitors, the movement hopes to push for what is considered a living wage and will use different tactics from their manifestations in May.

Back in July, around 1,300 workers meeting a convention in Chicago unanimously approved a resolution to use civil disobedience in the strikes on Thursday.

"They're going to use nonviolent civil disobedience as a way to call attention to what they're facing," Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU, told The New York Times. "They're invoking civil rights history to make the case that these jobs ought to be paid $15 and the companies ought to recognize a union."

The union has encouraged home-care workers to join the striking fast food workers in a show of solidarity as well as an attempt to raise their own wages.

One of the strikers' main targets is McDonald's -- one of the world's largest fast food chains -- and the strikers hope to push the corporation into giving them a higher wage. According to MSNBC, however, the franchise model fast food chains use place wages at the hands of franchise owners and not the corporation.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled, however, that corporations like McDonald's could be considered partners within the franchise model, making the corporation liable for any wage and benefits issues.

As of May 2013, the average wage for a restaurant worker is $8.74 an hour, reports Time magazine, and 13 states have raised their minimum wages by an average of 28 cents at the start of the year.

In the protests in New York Cities, over a hundred workers protested in Times Square, and more than a dozen were arrested, according to NBC New York. However, the workers are not alone. Backing the striking fast food workers is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

In a statement the socialist senator said, "Let's be clear. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 is a starvation wage. I applaud the fast-food workers all across the country who will be striking this Thursday to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty."