The wage suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court by four employees of the downtown Marriott Courtyard as a proposed class action on behalf of affected workers at all seven company-affiliated hotels in the city, including the San Francisco Marriott, the Stanford Court and the Ritz-Carlton.

Marriott's Employee Former Supervisor, who is also the lawyer for the workers, said it is the first private class-action suit seeking to enforce the wage ordinance, Proposition L, since it was passed by city voters in November 2003 and took effect the following February. The ordinance initially set the minimum wage at $8.50 an hour and increased it in January to $8.62, or $7.75 for nonprofit groups and companies with fewer than 10 employees. The state minimum wage is $6.75 an hour and the federal minimum is $5.15.

The city attorney's office took its first enforcement action in August, accusing the former owners of a Chinatown restaurant of underpaying their employees. He states "that the city lacks the resources to enforce the measure thoroughly, so workers will often have to depend on private lawsuits for compensation. "

According to the lawsuit, Marriott paid the hotel workers $7.67 an hour in February 2004 and now pays them $8.23, still 39 cents below the city minimum. A hotel official told complaining workers that the ordinance didn't apply because the staff was represented by a union, even though they lack a union contract, the suit said. In fact, the ordinance exempts employers only if they have a union contract that expressly waives the city minimum wage.

The ordinance entitles underpaid workers to $50 a day in damages. The suit said hundreds of Marriott workers would be covered if a judge grants class-action status.

The discrimination suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is an expansion of a case originally filed in August 2004 by sales managers in San Francisco and Newport Beach (Orange County). The three managers are in their 60s and said they were denied promotions by the same executive, Rick Owen, in favor of younger applicants.

"Marriott is paying Owen $1 million per year to systematically flush out older workers in favor of younger, hipper, good-looking, lesser-qualified individuals,'' the suit said.

Plaintiff Victoria Roger-Vasselin, 63, a regional membership executive at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, said Owen told her when she sought a promotion in 2000 that "it takes a lot of energy to run a team of that size,'' that "someone younger would be good for that position'' and that "complacency comes with age.''

Another plaintiff, Kenneth Arrick, 65, a former Newport Beach sales executive, said Owen put him on a "do not promote'' list and at one point told him a handrail recently installed at the Orange County office might help him walk and put more spring in his step. Arrick said he was ostracized when he complained. He went on disability leave in February and now lives in Arizona.