Nicole Rodriguez, 19, a fast-food worker at McDonald’s, works 40 hours a week.  She’s also a full-time student at Borough of Manhattan Community College. She says she finds it hard to pay her phone bill, transportation costs, and help her parents out on the $12 an hour that she now earns. However, she hopes when she starts to make $15 an hour that she will be able to reduce her working hours, give a bit more of her wages to her parents and devote more time to her studies. — Kayla Rivera