Fair Labor Standards Act Violation – Dormant Commerce Clause

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Andrea Hirst, et al. v. SkyWest, Inc., et al.

Case No.: 17-3643; 17-3660

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, ROVNER, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Fair Labor Standards Act Violation – Dormant Commerce Clause

In this case, a number of current and former flight attendants challenge an airline’s compensation policy of paying for their work in the air but not on the ground. Plaintiffs-appellants (“the Flight Attendants”) all work or worked for defendant-appellee SkyWest Airlines, Inc., an airline owned by co-defendant-appellee SkyWest, Inc. (collectively “SkyWest”). The Flight Attendants filed suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (“FLSA”), and various state and local wage laws, seeking to certify a class of similarly situated SkyWest employees. The district court dismissed the complaint in its entirety, finding that the Flight Attendants had failed to allege a FLSA violation, and that the dormant Commerce Clause barred the state and local claims.

The Flight Attendants plausibly allege they were not paid for certain hours of work. We agree with other federal circuits, however, that under the FLSA the relevant unit for determining a pay violation is not wages per hour, but the average hourly wage across a workweek. Because the Flight Attendants failed to allege even a single workweek in which one of them received less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, we affirm the dismissal of those claims.

We do not agree, though, with the application of the dormant Commerce Clause in this case. States possess authority to regulate the labor of their own citizens and companies, so we apply that doctrine sparingly to wage regulations. The dormant Commerce Clause does not preclude state regulation of flight attendant wages in this case, particularly when the FLSA itself reserves that authority to states and localities. Accordingly, we reverse the dismissal of the state and local wage claims and remand for further proceedings.

Reversed and Remanded

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Derek A. Hawkins is a trademark corporate counsel attorney for Harley-Davidson, where he concentrates his practice on brand protection and strategy.