Three General Assembly bills are proposing a more modest rise in minimum wage for Virginia over Del. Marcus Simon’s more controversial bill asking for $15.15 an hour.
Three General Assembly bills are proposing a more modest rise in minimum wage for Virginia over Del. Marcus Simon’s more controversial bill asking for $15.15 an hour.
Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke), patron of Senate Bill 681, and Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston), patron of House Bill 1654, are asking to raise the minimum wage incrementally until it’s at least $10 per hour in 2017.
Del. Plum and Sen. Marsden introduced similar minimum wage proposals in last year’s session. Marsden’s bill passed in the Senate but was defeated on the House floor, while Plum’s bill faced opposition from local businesses.
“The numbers point out the great economic disparity in our state and in our country now between the haves and the have-nots,” Plum said. “Those numbers are clear. There are a lot of people who are having difficulty making ends meet and I think one of the problems that contributes to that is the minimum wage is too low.”
The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce was one of the groups who opposed raising the minimum wage in last year’s session. In their 2015 Legislative Agenda, they maintain that any increase to minimum wage would “increase the price of labor, place burdensome costs on employers (especially small employers), and cause businesses to pass higher costs on to consumers.”
In 2014, President Obama’s state of the union address asked Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. His proposal has not made it past the Republican-dominated House and Senate. He then signed an executive order that raised minimum wages for federal service contractors.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 20 states in the U.S. raised their minimum wages on the first of this year. Some are routine increases based on inflation, while others are the result of legislation passed within the state.
Plum said the minimum wage in Virginia hasn’t changed in a half dozen years. As it stands, minimum wage in the state is set at $7.25 an hour, as mandated by federal law. Both Plum and Marsden hope to take their first step by raising minimum wage to $8.00 per hour by July 1, 2015.
Sen. Linda “Toddy” Puller (D-Mount Vernon) is another elected offical asking the General Assembly to raise the minimum wage to $8.00 per hour by July 2015 with Senate Bill 706. However, her bill does not ask for any additional increases following this first year.
Del. Simon’s House Bill 1512 asks the General Assembly to raise minimum wage to $15.15 by the middle of 2015. It would then be “adjusted annually thereafter to reflect increases in the consumer price index.”
“Higher wages are the best way to stimulate economic growth, allowing people to spend more money and increase consumption that will boost the local, regional and state economy,” Simon said in a press release.
When RVA Mag published a story about Simon’s bill on Facebook, the comments section went wild.
One RVA Magazine follower, David Imbody, was concerned about such a large increase in such a short amount of time.
“If this happens workers will get hours cut, companies will fail, and Virginia’s production power will become irrelevant,” Imbody said. “It will also kill new businesses opening and entrepreneurship that would otherwise be possible.”
Another Facebook commentator, Raven Herrera, defended the proposal against complaints that raising minimum wage to $15.15 an hour is unfair to those whose salaries are less than that.
“This is about raising the standard of living for the state,” Herrera said. “If you can’t see that it is in your best interest for the poor family down the street to make a living wage then you only deserve $15 an hour. More often then not, minimum wage workers work more than one job and support family members other than their immediate family. They are not all drug addicts and criminals. I’m sick of this blatant moral justification for selfish indignation.”
Plum is prepared for an uphill battle, even at only $8/hour, trying to raise minimum wage at all will be a hard sell to Virginia’s conservative GA members. He doubts a bill that almost doubles the current minimum wage will pass, but think’s Simon is in the right.
“I think, in reality, ($15/hour) gets closer towards a living wage. It’s probably something we should try to do in the long haul,” Plum said. “I’m not sure if you could get support in Virginia to go that far that rapidly. That’s why I take incremental steps to move as far as we can.”
