Jaz Brisack, a practitioner in residence at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, said one-day actions aren’t necessarily going to play a role in stopping production or operations. “It has a different, extremely valuable aim, which is putting public pressure and attention on a company.”

In CA, fast-food workers will earn a $20 minimum wage starting in April: “That will put upward pressure on wages in the same labor market that retail stores are competing with,” Ken Jacobs said. “We may see retailers raising pay in order to attract workers.”

“The pandemic has affected the economy as a whole, but it has had an adverse disparate impact on sectors that primarily employ low-wage workers … retail, hospitality, leisure,” said Lopezlira. “The pandemic caused huge decreases in employment all at once, and re-hiring all those workers is much harder than letting them go.”