RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia Republicans are advancing a proposal to lower the minimum wage for children in the commonwealth over the opposition of youth advocates.
According to Delegate Daniel Marshall (R – Roanoke), HB 1669 was inspired by a conversation with a local business owner.
“His concern is not so much what the minimum wage is today,” Marshall said. “He’s worried about when it inches up to $15.”
But as House majority leader Delegate Terry Kilgore (R – Norton) pointed out, the minimum wage will only increase to $15 an hour if the General Assembly re-enacts those increases in new legislation — something unlikely to happen under a Republican-controlled House.
Still, Marshall said businesses can’t afford to pay the higher wage for “someone who comes into a business less than 18 with a small skillset.”
“What we’re doing here is just limiting the pay to $9 for age 18 and below,” he said. His bill would set a universal floor of $9 an hour for workers under the age of 18.
Under current Virginia law, the state minimum wage of $12 an hour applies to workers above the age of 16, unless they’re a student and work less than 20 hours a week or fall under one of the other exceptions. For those under the age of 16 or otherwise excepted, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour applies, as well as the “training wage” of $4.25 an hour in limited circumstances.
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