House subcommittee kills bills to raise minimum wage

In an unrecorded voice vote, the Republican-majority Commerce and Labor Subcommittee #2 today killed three bills that would have raised the minimum wage in Virginia.

“House Republicans just denied low-wage workers a well-earned raise,” said House Democratic Leader David J. Toscano. “Anyone living in any part of the Commonwealth could tell you that $7.25 per hour is not enough to support a family. States with a much lower cost of living – such as Nebraska, Maine and South Dakota – have a higher minimum wage than we do here in Virginia. Today’s vote was a slap in the face to working families across the state.”

“A Virginian working forty hours per week at the minimum wage brings in an annual salary of just over $15,000,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Charniele Herring. “No one working full-time should live in poverty, yet today’s vote sentenced thousands of Virginia workers to remain stuck there. Today’s vote was a loss not just for these workers, but also for our economy at-large.”

The pieces of legislation killed were:

• Del. Sam Rasoul’s bill would have raised the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.00 on July 1, 2017, then to $12.50 in 2019 and to $15.00 in 2021.
• Del. Ken Plum’s bill would have raised the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 in 2018, with indexing for future increases.
• Del. Marcus Simon’s bill would have raised the minimum wage from $7.25 to $11 on July 1, 2017 and to $15.00 in 2019, with indexing for future increases.