(The Center Square) — A federal appeals court on Thursday stopped a Biden administration mandate requiring a $15 hourly minimum wage for outdoor recreation businesses that operate on public lands.

The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver issued an injunction in a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation against the Biden administration on behalf of outdoor recreation groups that have US government contracts or operate on state lands.

The “plaintiffs have established an entitlement to an exemption from the minimum wage order in their particular circumstances,” the court ruled, barring the government from enforcing the $15-an-hour minimum wage mandate, which leisure businesses said would force some of them out of business.

The court also granted the motion, finding that the plaintiffs “would likely succeed in the merits” and “suffer irreparable harm without interim relief.”

The injunction will remain in effect pending further judgment by the court.

“This decision helps more than 40,000 businesses like Arkansas Valley Adventures that provide seasonal recreational services on state lands,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation. “The court recognized that this wage arrangement made no sense for the industry, would limit access to the outdoors and reduce employment opportunities for people in the industry. More importantly, the court also recognized that the President had no authority to make the rule.”

The foundation sued last December on behalf of outdoor adventure guides Arkansas Valley Adventures (AVA), a licensed river outfitter regulated by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, and the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA). The CROA, a not-for-profit trade association, represents more than 150 independent operators who do business primarily on federal land using special use permits from the US Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management.

It argues that the requirement is “tantamount to a seizure of executive power to enforce a social agenda by federal contractors.”

It is about a final rule from the US Department of Labor that was issued in November November in response to an executive order issued by President Joe Biden last April. The arrangement is similar to that of former President Barack Obama in 2014.

The DOL claims that raising the minimum wage “increases worker productivity and creates better quality work by boosting worker health, morale, and exertion; reducing absenteeism and turnover; and reducing monitoring and training costs.”

But AVA argues that unless they get an exception to the rule, it and other similar companies could go out of business, which could result in direct and indirect job losses.

AVA, which offers a full range of outdoor experiences year-round, including guided multi-day wilderness river rafting trips in summer, is not and never has been a government contractor. However, because it has a special land use permit to operate on federal land, it is subject to the requirement. It argues that it is erroneously placed in a category of federal contractors, forcing it to adopt “a wage model fundamentally inconsistent with the way leading industry operates”.

Furthermore, PLF argues, only Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the minimum wage, not the President.

“Only Congress can legislate to set minimum wages,” said PLF attorney Caleb Kruckenberg. “The President cannot set a minimum wage by administrative order. The Constitution states that only Congress can make laws binding the public.”

The verdict comes exactly a week after Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi sued about the mandate.

The attorneys general argued in their complaint: “President Biden has attempted to usurp the power to impose sweeping changes on American society with little more than the stroke of a pen. In pursuit of partisan ends, the defendants are unilaterally seeking to impose a radical policy — a dramatic and rapid increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors — with no apparent regard for the widespread economic devastation that will result.”

Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division began hosting virtual compliance seminars and interactive webinars for agencies, contractors, unions, employees and other stakeholders to learn how to comply with the new rule. Now, such training does not apply to contractors providing seasonal recreational services or seasonal rentals of recreational equipment to the general public in federal states.

The court also granted in its order a request from the National Employment Law Project, the Communications Workers of America, the Service Employees International Union, the National Women’s Law Center and the Economic Policy Institute to file an amicus brief in support of the government.

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor