The International Franchise Association, suing on behalf of franchisees in Seattle, has once again been rebuffed in its legal battle over the city’s new minimum wage law.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this past week upheld the local U.S. District Court’s ruling that the Emerald City’s new $15-an-hour minimum wage law is correct in lumping franchises in with corporations for size consideration.

As a result, franchisees and large businesses will have to implement the new wage rate by 2017. Small businesses, which the association argued are what franchises are, will have seven years for implementation.


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