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 Voters in the city of SeaTac, where Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport is based, approved a 2013 initiative enacting a $15 minimum
wage and other benefits for workers in the hospitality and travel
industries, but thousands of airport employees were later excluded
by court order.
A King County Superior Court judge had ruled that SeaTac did not
have the authority to set workplace rules within the airport because
the international aviation hub is owned by the Port of Seattle, a
separate government entity.
Washington state's Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, on Thursday
reversed the trial court's finding, writing that the wage law can be
enforced at the airport because "there has been no showing that this
law would interfere with airport operations".
The majority also found that federal labor law does not preempt a
local provision protecting workers from retaliation.
 "4,700 people are celebrating right now, they're getting a huge
boost in pay," said Heather Weiner, a spokeswoman for the SeaTac
Committee for Good Jobs, an appellant in the case. "In their next
paycheck they will be paid $15.24 an hour."
Plaintiffs in the SeaTac case were the Washington Restaurant
Association, BF Foods, Filo Foods and Alaska Airlines, which has its
primary hub at the airport and which in 2005 terminated its roughly
500 unionized ramp workers there, some of whom were rehired as
lower-paid nonunion contractors. Alaska Airlines did not
immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokeswoman,
Bobbie Egan, told the Seattle Times the company respects the views
of the state Supreme Court and will "carefully review the full
decision as we determine the appropriate next steps."
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The Port of Seattle did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Washington state's hourly minimum wage, at $9.47, is the highest
among U.S. states, though Rhode Island enacted an increase to $9.60
effective Jan. 1, 2016, according to the National Conference of
State Legislatures.
SeaTac was the first city in the nation to approve a $15 minimum
wage. Some 29 states and Washington, D.C. have minimum wages above
the federal minimum of $7.25, according to the conference.
Seattle in April gave certain workers a bump in compensation on a
step-by-step path to the $15 hourly wage.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Victoria
Cavaliere and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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