What it means for you
Virginia used the $7.25 federal minimum until a 2020 law raised it in steps, to $9.50 in May 2021, $11 in 2022, and $12 in 2023. Since 2025 it has risen with inflation, reaching $12.77 in 2026.
Who benefits: Low-wage workers across Virginia, including domestic workers and others the law newly brought under the state minimum wage.
For years, Virginia’s minimum wage was the same as the federal one: $7.25 an hour. A 2020 law changed that. The state minimum rose to $9.50 on May 1, 2021, then to $11 on Jan. 1, 2022, and to $12 on Jan. 1, 2023. Workers didn’t have to do anything; employers had to pay the new rates.
The law also brought more people under the minimum wage, including domestic workers in private homes and people paid by the piece. It planned two more steps, to $13.50 and $15, but those needed a second vote by July 1, 2024, and they didn’t get one. Instead, the wage started rising each year with inflation in 2025 and reached $12.77 in 2026.
Del. Jeion Ward and Sen. Dick Saslaw sponsored the bills. Their conference deal passed both chambers on party-line votes. Gov. Ralph Northam proposed changes, and when the Senate split 20–20 on accepting them, its presiding officer broke the tie. The law was enacted on April 22, 2020. Ward later sponsored the 2026 law that takes the wage to $15 by 2028.
Work and wagesLower costs
Sources
- HB 395, 2020 Session: bill history and summary as enactedVirginia Legislative Information System
- Code of Virginia § 40.1-28.10: Minimum wageVirginia Legislative Information System
- Virginia's General Assembly passes slate of wage-and-hour billsMcGuireWoods
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, which corrected it. Confirmed the wage amounts, enactment history, credits, current status, and all four roll calls. Corrected one party breakdown, clarified which votes were party-line, and updated the status check date.
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