Wage Law Survives High Court

[Liberty Belle]

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BERKELEY
Wage law survives high court
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 11, 2005



Berkeley's "living wage'' law was bolstered Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a hearing to a restaurant that challenged the extension of the ordinance to businesses on the city marina.

The extension, passed in 2000, affected only employees of a single business -- Skates on the Bay, a waterfront restaurant -- because other marina employers had signed union contracts, making them exempt from the law. Skates' owner argued that because it was nonunion, it had been targeted by the city in violation of federal labor law and the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco disagreed in June, ruling 2-1 that the city was entitled to extend the ordinance to a particular area to ensure decent living standards for workers. The high court denied review Monday without comment.

"This makes it clear that the government has wide latitude in enacting this kind of social welfare legislation,'' City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said. ..

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/11/BAGNFAO6U21.DTL


Nice to see the Supremes get one right. That'll change as soon as Bush picks an anti-labor rightwing nutjob, no doubt.