RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) announced on Memorial Day that he will hold rallies this week in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee in support of increasing the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour.

“At a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality and record-breaking corporate profits, we must stand up for working families – many of whom are struggling every day to provide a minimal standard of living for their families,” Sanders said. “There are too many Americans trying to survive and raise families on $9, $10, or $12 an hour. It cannot be done. This injustice must end. Low-income workers need a pay raise and the American people want them to get that raise.”

Sanders will be joined by Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in Durham, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones in Nashville, Tennessee, and State Rep. Wendell Gilliard in Charleston, South Carolina. The Rev. William J. Barber II, founding director at the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yake Divinity School, will also join all three stops with Sanders to make the moral case of raising wages.

According to a news release from Sanders, 60 percent of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, a decline in life expectancy for low-income Americans, and the nation at the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country.

The minimum wage in the U.S. has not been raised since 2009.

The location and times for the rallies are listed below:

Thursday,  June 1

7 p.m. Rally to Raise the Wage in Durham with County Commissioner Nida Allam

Hayti Heritage Center 804 Old Fayetteville St, Durham.

Friday, June  2

7 p.m. Rally to Raise the Wage in Nashville  with State Rep. Justin Jones

Henderson A. Johnson Memorial Gymnasium at Fisk University, 910 Dr. DB Todd Jr. Blvd., Nashville, Tenn.

Saturday, June  3

4 p.m. Rally to Raise the Wage in Charleston with State Rep. Wendell Gilliard In partnership with SC AFL-CIO and Hosted by the ILA 1422

International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 Union Hall, 1142 Morrison Drive, Charleston, S.C.