By Tanja Babich

Protestors dispersed before 10 a.m. Thursday after a peaceful, but loud rally outside McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.

Douglas Hunter, who works at a McDonald’s in Austin, has pumped up the crowd at dozens of Fight for Fifteen protests. He says he does it for more than higher wages.

“I’m impassioned about this because it directly affects my community and communities all over this country. These low wages. There’s a lot of violence. There’s a lot of anger,” he said.

Antione Heron said young men and women can’t build themselves up when low wages bring them down. He worked for a McDonald’s in Washington, D.C., while attending Howard University. He said he didn’t earn enough to cover tuition, so he dropped out to come home and attend community college.

“My whole life, my dream was set on going to college and finishing my degree and starting my career in teaching. But, because I wasn’t able to afford it due to lack of financial resources, I’m pushed back,” Heron said.

More than a thousand demonstrators, many of whom were McDonald’s employees, participated.

“This isn’t just a McDonald’s thing. I was just talking to someone from churches. People are here from Popeye’s, Walmart, nurses, health care workers, even some part-time professors at the universities are a part of this,” Dan Fein, Walmart employee, said.

Read More Minimum wage protesters demand $15 an hour at McDonald’s headquarters | abc7chicago.com.