1. Is the language “current rate of wages” certain enough to be enforceable? Why or why not?
2. Is there any other ambiguous or vague language in the statute? How could the statute be reworded in order to overcome any notion of vagueness?
More than a decade before a federal law set a mini-mum wage for workers, the State of Oklahoma passed a statute that established a minimum wage for workers performing services for the state government. The law based the minimum wage on “the current rate of per diem wages in the locality where the work is to be performed.” The state’s commissioner of labor charged General Construction with violating the minimum wage law. The commissioner alleged that various workers were being underpaid. General Construction argued that the statute was too vague to be enforceable.
