Virginia legislature passes $15-per-hour minimum wage

Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed legislation Monday that will raise the state’s minimum wage incrementally to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2028. Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in a statement that she plans to sign the bill when it reaches her desk.

Both the state Senate and House of Delegates bills codify the state’s hourly minimum wage of $12.77 that went into effect Jan. 1, as well as increasing it to $13.75 on Jan. 1, 2027, and finally to $15 at the start of 2028. Wages will rise in the future according to inflation, the bill says.

Democratic legislators passed similar legislation in 2024 and 2025, but the bills were vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. With the Democratic Spanberger in office, the minimum wage is set to increase again.

“Every Virginian who works full time deserves the financial stability to support their families, plan for the future and continue building a life here in the commonwealth. But Virginians’ wages have not kept up with rising costs,” Spanberger said in a statement Monday. “I look forward to signing this legislation into law to give Virginia workers a pay raise, and I’m grateful to the members of the General Assembly who have made stronger wages for working Virginians a priority.”

In the Senate, the 20-19 vote fell along party lines, although Democratic Sen. Jennifer Boysko did not vote Monday.

State Senate Republicans said in a statement that Democrats “just handed a pink slip to thousands of Virginia workers. Radical minimum wage hikes have led to mass layoffs and even worse cost of living crises everywhere they’ve been implemented.”

But Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, says the incremental increases give “Virginians the raise they deserve while giving businesses time to plan. By aligning future wage increases to inflation, we’re making sure wages never fall behind again.”

Both SB 1 and HB 1 are now set to go to the other chambers for consideration, as the General Assembly’s crossover day approaches Wednesday.