Cite as: 532 U. S. 200 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
earned at least $2,000 in wages in each of any five years after 1936. 1935 Act, §§ 201(a), 210(c), 49 Stat. 622, 625. In 1939, however, Congress introduced a new scheme, which remains in place today, tying eligibility for benefits to the number of calendar-year "quarters of coverage" accumulated by an individual. 1939 Amendments, §§ 209(g), (h), 53 Stat. 1376- 1377 (codified at 42 U. S. C. §§ 413(a)(2), 414). Section 209(g) defined a "quarter of coverage" as either "a calendar quarter in which the individual has been paid not less than $50 in wages" or any quarter except the first "where an individual has been paid in a calendar year $3,000 or more in wages." 53 Stat. 1377.
Nierotko swiftly dispatched the question whether " 'back pay' must be allocated as wages . . . to the 'calendar quarters' of the year in which the money would have been earned, if the employee had not been wrongfully discharged." 327 U. S., at 370. Rejecting the Government's argument that such allocation was impermissible because the 1939 Amendments to the benefits scheme refer to " 'wages' to be 'paid' in certain 'quarters,' " id., at 370, and n. 25 (citing id., at 362, n. 7 (citing § 209(g))), the Court concluded: "If, as we have held above, 'back pay' is to be treated as wages, we have no doubt that it should be allocated to the periods when the regular wages were not paid as usual." Id., at 370.
Although the allocation question in Nierotko was a secondary issue addressed summarily by the Court, we think the Company is correct that Nierotko undercuts the plain meaning argument urged by the Government here. Nierotko found no conflict between an allocation-back rule for backpay and the language in § 209(g) tying benefits eligibility to the number of calendar quarters "in which" a minimum amount of "wages" "has been paid." The Court's allocation holding for benefits eligibility purposes, which the Government does not urge us to overrule, Tr. of Oral Arg. 9, thus turned on an implicit construction of § 209(g)'s terms—"wages" "paid" "in" "a calendar quarter"—to include "regular wages" that
211
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007