Sea-Tac Airport workers converge at Supreme Court for $15 wage fight

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Fighting for a $15 an hour minimum wage, workers at Sea-Tac airport converged at the Washington State Supreme Court Thursday.

KIRO 7's Essex Porter was inside as the justices heard the crucial arguments in the case.

Voters in the City of SeaTac established $15 as the minimum wage for big hotel and transportation companies in and around the airport.

The workers took their case to the Supreme Court when Alaska Airlines and the Port of Seattle refused to implement the higher minimum wage, saying the state constitution doesn’t allow cities to regulate wages at the airport because it comes under a separate government.

A new twist in the case came a couple of days ago when the Port moved to establish a $13 an hour minimum wage by 2017, but workers Porter met Thursday said it’s too little and too long, and that they’ve already lost millions in wages that they should have been paid when $15 an hour took effect in much of SeaTac in January.

Porter said that during the arguments, there was some skepticism from the justices on both sides.  Porter is putting together what happened after the arguments and will have that story  on KIRO 7 Eyewitness News at 5 p.m.

KIRO