High court won’t hear challenge to $15 wage

Associated Press

SEATTLE

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in for the first time Monday on a $15-an-hour minimum wage, signaling it does not plan to stop the movement that is spreading across the nation, worker advocates say.

The justices refused to hear a challenge to Seattle’s law, which franchise owners said discriminates against them by treating them as large businesses. It comes as several other cities and a group of states, including California and New York, have started to phase in a $15 minimum wage in recent months as the cost of living keeps rising.

State courts are considering several challenges to local minimum-wage laws, which each take a slightly different approach, but no other cases are on their way to Supreme Court at this time, the National Employment Law Project said.

“The Supreme Court’s action makes clear that the courts are not going to step in to block the raises that America’s workers need,” said Paul Sonn, general counsel and program director of the group that advocates for employment rights for lower-wage workers.