Union workers are protesting wage rates outside McDonald's today and are warning there are more protests to come.

About 15 Unite Union members gathered on Cameron Road outside McDonald's 11th Avenue branch around lunchtime to protest.

This is the first union protest in Tauranga and protestors say they are not happy with minimum wage rates.

Organiser and Unite Union member Bonita Moyes says people are also protesting the number of allocated breaks she says employees are working through and not being paid for.

'This multinational company is only paying the 25 cent maximum wage increase Government has given. That's all the company is willing to put on the table. You can't live on that”.

Protests are happening across the country in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Bonita says there are more to come.

'Watch this space. The people have spoken.”

Bonita says a minimum wage of $13.75 is not an appropriate living wage and workers are not even being promised permanent work hours.

'It's about the security of hours so that people can actually survive. Some workers don't even do 40 hours a week."

About two years ago Bonita says the union noticed employees were working through their allocated breaks and still having their pay deducted for breaks they hadn't taken.

She says if employees are being forced to work through their breaks, they should be getting paid.

'That's not even happening now.”

For three years Bonita says Unite Union has been promoting a minimum $15 living wage.

McDonald's Restaurants NZ communications manager Kim Bartlett says McDonald's has been in negotiations with the union that represent 20 per cent of its employees.

"Despite having made good progress we have been unable to reach an agreement, and so we are in dispute."

Kim says none of the group protesting today were McDonald's employees.