Chrisanna Capshaw says she’s part of the Fight for $15 and wants a union to help her give a better life for her kids.

Capshaw, who struggles to raise two young children on the $8 an hour she makes at a Subway in North Carolina, has joined with other fast food workers from Las Vegas to New York City to demand higher pay and a voice on the job.

The AFL-CIO is committed helping Capshaw and all those who count on a paycheck. Our Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is leading the way.

Shuler recently announced the results of the AFL-CIO National Survey on Working Women. Over six weeks, nearly 25,000 working women completed 15 minutes worth of detailed questions. That’s remarkable, especially considering that working women are already stretched thin. The survey provided us with lots of useful data and one clear message: working women want equal pay and an equal say.

A woman who works full time loses more than half a million dollars over her lifetime by being paid less than men for doing the same job. This not only hurts women, it takes money away from entire families.

Unfortunately, it’s not just money that slips away. Working women are losing control of their time, too. In our survey, one-third of women report working over 40 hours a week, while 11 percent say they are on the job more than 50 hours. Twenty-five percent of respondents spend more than 30 hours a week caring for others.

As one working woman in our survey said: “Work-life balance does not exist.”

That’s why America’s labor movement supports the “Fight for $15 and a Union,” because higher wages and collective bargaining can help close this gap. It is why we are working to win paid family leave and paid sick leave and to strengthen laws against discrimination in hiring, pay and promotion. It is why we are fighting to raise the disgracefully low tipped minimum wage for restaurant workers, which is as little as $2.13 an hour in 19 states.

Each of our policy ideas would improve the lives of millions of working people, most of whom are women.

Yet forming or joining a union remains the single most powerful tool for working women to get ahead.

We want to strengthen the right to organize, so more working people — and more women — have the freedom to sit down across from employers to bargain for fair pay and benefits. As we stand together in the workplace — especially at low and moderate-paying jobs—all of us will have more leverage to build better lives for ourselves and our families.

As Chrisanna Capshaw said, “My kids are the reason why.”

Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest coalition of labor unions. He comes from a small coal-mining town in Southwest Pennsylvania.