San Francisco Labor Council v. Regents of University of California

Plaintiffs petitioned the superior court for writ of mandate to compel the Regents of the University of California to fix minimum salary rates for certain employees at or above the prevailing wage rates in various localities in accordance with Education Code section 92611. The trial court sustained defendants’ demurrer without leave to amend on ground the statute conflicts with article IX, section 9 of the California Constitution. Plaintiffs appeal from judgment of dismissal. The judgment must be affirmed.

Education Code section 92611 provides: “The minimum and maximum salary limits for laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed on an hourly or per diem basis need not be uniform throughout the state, but the regents shall ascertain, as to each such position, the general prevailing rate of such wages in the various localities of the state.

“In fixing such minimum and maximum salary limits within the various localities of the state, the regents shall take into account the prevailing rates of wages in the localities in which the employee is to work and other relevant factors, and shall not fix the minimum salary limits below the general prevailing rate so ascertained for…