Thousands Of Protesters March For $15 Hourly Wages Across U.S..... Protests were also held overseas, including at a McDonald’s at Disneyland Paris and outside the headquarters for the South Korea division of the fast-food giant.

04/15/2016 05:13 am ET

Thousands of low-wage workers marched in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities on Thursday calling for minimum pay of $15 an hour in a cause that has scored major legislative victories in California and New York state in recent weeks.

People in Los Angeles protest for a $15/hour
 minimum wage on Thursday...LUCY NICHOLSON / REUTERS

The union-backed “Fight for $15” campaign has expanded since its inception in 2012 from a movement mostly centered on the fast-food industry to encompass other low-wage sectors, such as home health care, retail outlets and hospitals.

Much of the attention in Thursday’s rallies, in what some organizers called a national day of action, was on McDonald’s Corp fast-food eateries, the world’s biggest restaurant chain by revenue. Demonstrators said they want to get to a $15 minimum in any they can, whether that happens at the state or city level or even via individual companies.

A demonstration in Chicago was one
 of about 300 that took place
 nationwide on Thursday. 

In New York City, demonstrators rallied in Times Square and later protested outside a Republican gala featuring the party’s three candidates for the 2016 presidential race, while in Los Angeles protesters held aloft large balloons and marched behind a banner that read, “McJobs hurt us all.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke at the rally in Times Square, on a day that also saw Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders express support for the marchers. more