Is Virginia a place where individuals can move up the income scale based on merit and hard work? One new study challenges that idea.
Blacks and Hispanics have the highest likelihood of being stuck at the bottom end of the economic scale — or even experiencing downward mobility. That’s according to a new study from the journal Demography.
Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute says lawmakers have taken some action to remedy this, like making investments in affordable housing and allowing people with court fines to keep their drivers licenses. But…
“One area that Virginia policymakers haven’t taken a real hard look at is increasing the state’s minimum wage to make sure that everyone who works a full-time job is able to support a family with dignity,” she says.
Senate Republican Leader Tommy Norment says raising the minimum wage actually ends up hurting those it’s intended to help.
“One of the things that they found in Washington as they increased the minimum mandatory wage was that these lower-income workers ended up getting less hours to work so that business individuals could compensate for what the increased cost would be on their customers,” Norment says.
The effort to raise the minimum wage in Virginia may not have made it past lawmakers this year. But now it moves to voters. The issue will be one of the central points of contrast between Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly election this fall.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
