Find Legal Information

A New York minimum wage law empowered the state labor commission to fix wages in relation to the class of service rendered. This fixing of wages in relation to value was an attempt to satisfy the Supreme Court's narrow view of minimum wage legislation.

Does the law violate the liberty protected by due process of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Yes, the law is unconstitutional. The right of employers and employees to make contracts for wages in return for work "is part of the liberty protected by the due process clause." The state could not interfere with such contracts. The decision was so at odds with current thinking that national conventions of both political parties explicitly called for its repudiation. Within a year, the Court took a dramatic reversal of course.