The Mason, Ohio-based Cintas Corporation has been ordered to pay $2.2 million for violating a city living wage ordinance. The Hayward, California, ordinance requires service contractors to pay specified living wage rates, much higher than the state or federal minimum wages, to their employees who perform work on a contract with the city worth at least $25,000.

Cintas, which held a contract to wash uniforms and towels for Hayward, was hit with a class-action lawsuit, charging that the company failed to pay the city-mandated living wage. Cintas argued that the living wage rates didn’t apply because the work under the contract was performed not in Hayward, but in Cintas plants in Union City and San Leandro. A trial court ruled for the employees, ordering Cintas to pay $1 million in back wages and waiting-time penalties, and $1.26 million in attorney’s fees.

Now an appeals court has upheld the award, finding that Hayward’s ordinance clearly applied to all work performed under a service contract, regardless of whether the work was done in or out of city limits.

Cintas is a $3.7 billion-dollar company that provides highly specialized services, including the design and manufacture of corporate identity uniform programs, entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products, first aid and safety products, fire protection services, and document management services, to approximately 800,000 businesses.

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