The Virginia House of Delegates passed a Republican bill on Tuesday that would freeze the state’s minimum wage at $11 an hour and overturn scheduled incremental raises that would bring the floor to $15 in 2026.
Though the bill is not likely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, it serves as an example of how newly-in-power Republicans are seeking to roll back key legislation that was passed under unified Democratic leadership over the past two years.
The bill, introduced by Del. Nick Freitas (R-Culpeper), passed the House along party lines, 51-48, Tuesday afternoon. Freitas’s bill proposes eliminating raises outlined in a law passed in 2020, which increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour with incremental raises scheduled every year until 2026 when the minimum wage would reach $15 an hour.
The first raise was initially intended to take effect in 2020 but was postponed to avoid burdening businesses already struggling with the economic crisis brought on by the first months of the coronavirus pandemic. The first raise to $9.50 went into effect in May 2021, then increased again to $11 an hour Jan. 1. The next increase is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2023, when the floor would reach $12 an hour. Freitas’s bill would nix that raise.
“We believe in good economic policy, ultimately because we think it helps the most amount of people,” Freitas said in an interview after the bill passed. “And so when we can roll back policy that I think is going to create an environment...
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