Photo by Rachel Sadon.

A coalition of groups launched a campaign today to get a measure on the ballot for a $15 minimum wage in the District.

Low-wage workers gathered on the steps of the Wilson Building, where they joined in chants of “We’re homecare workers. Fight back.” and “No justice, no peace. No 15, no peace.”

“No one working a full-time job should be able to get Medicaid or on food stamps … but that is what these workers have to do to make ends meet,” said Lisa Brown, executive vice president of 1199 SEIU. “On Tax Day, we are here to send the message that workers want to pay taxes but they can’t do that because they don’t earn a living wage.”

Delvone Michael, the executive director of D.C. Working Families, told the assembled crowd: “This isn’t about bottom lines … this is about real people, where we are as a city, and what we become as a nation.”

Labor activists around the country are also protesting today for a $15 minimum wage. In New York, about 15,000 people are expected to march to Times Square at 6 p.m.

The District’s current minimum wage is $9.50 and will rise to $10.50 as of July 1, and $11.50 on that date in 2016. Starting in 2017, the rate will be tied to the average increase in the Consumer Price Index.

The campaign to raise it to $15 comes at a time when the city’s wage gap between the rich and poor is at a 35-year high. It also comes on the heels of the successful ballot initiative that legalized marijuana in the District with more than 70 percent of the vote. David Bronner, who helped finance the pot effort, told The Washington Post that he plans to spend $200,000 to do the same for the $15 minimum wage campaign in D.C. And when residents were polled in 2013 about the wage increase to $12.50, nearly three-fourths of voters supported it.

Still, the coalition can probably expect a major fight from Wal-Mart, which aggressively fought a so-called “living wage” bill for large retailers, and other big businesses.

The coalition hopes to get the initiative on the ballot in 2016, Michael confirmed. It would also include a provision to pay restaurant workers the minimum wage, rather than the current $2.77 (unless tips don’t bring the total to the minimum wage).

The groups involved in the campaign include D.C. Working Families, Unite Here Local 25, Our D.C., the Restaurant Opportunities Center, 32BJ SEIU, ews United for Justice, and 1199 SEIU, which has been lobbying for a higher wage for healthcare workers. They also plan to gather at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial tonight at 6 p.m. to read excerpts of King’s labor speeches.