Court: minimum wage hike applies to airport workers

The port will work with the City of SeaTac, which is responsible for the implementation and enforcement of Proposition 1.

In a 5-4 ruling the high court expanded the City of SeaTac’s $15 minimum wage law to include SeaTac Airport.

“We reverse both of these rulings”, Justice Owen wrote.

The wage went into effect at the beginning of 2014 for workers at hotels and parking lots above a certain size, but workers at the airport did not get the raise because a superior court judge ruled that the law didn’t apply there.

The Washington Restaurant Association said in a statement it would respect the decision of the court, according to The Seattle Times, and Alaska Airlines noted that the company had voluntarily raised minimum wages for more than 1,000 workers to $12 an hour last year, according to KPLU. The Port of Seattle agreed with the ruling.

However, the opposing justices argued that the Port of Seattle has exclusive jurisdiction at the airport, not the city of SeaTac.

The Legislature “intended to vest authority for the operation of the airport exclusively with the Port of Seattle”, but that “it did not intend to prohibit a local municipality like the city of SeaTac from regulating for the general welfare in a manner unrelated to airport operations”. The bulk additionally discovered that federal regulation does not pre-empt the initiatives provision defending staff from retaliation. “We otherwise affirm the trial court and thus uphold Proposition 1 in its entirety”.

SeaTac Committee for Good Jobs said airport workers should see the raise in their next paychecks, and that employees are entitled to retroactive pay of the difference in wages.

“With this ruling, it is my hope that the Port of Seattle will accept the imprudence of its unfortunate and counterproductive opposition, and instead shift its efforts to honoring and implementing the will of the voters”. Los Angeles and San Francisco have also enacted $15 minimum wages, and other cities are considering following suit. Private sector businesses off the Port’s property implemented the law in 2014. Weeks after voters approved the new minimum wage, a King County judge ruled that because the Port of Seattle was its own jurisdiction, the city’s rules didn’t apply.

Residents of SeaTac, the town that surrounds Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport, voted in November 2013 to boost its minimal wage to $15 an hour and provides staff different protections. The question for today: Will workers have to sue Alaska airlines and others for back pay?

About 4,700 workers are employed at businesses inside the airport.