Democrats in the General Assembly are hoping to raise the minimum wage.
The last time Democrats were in control of the General Assembly, they raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Now, they want to raise it to $15 an hour. Republican Senator Mark Peake of Lynchburg voted against the bill when it was in committee this week.
"I want everybody to earn a living wage. We need to do that through the free markets. I think it's gone up. You saw it over COVID, the price went up, the minimum wage; very few people actually can hire anybody for minimum wage anymore," he says. "So, I think the market is taking care of itself and I just don't like to set that artificially as a legislature."
The bill to raise the minimum wage from $12 an hour to $15 an hour was introduced by Senator Louise Lucas, a Democrat from Portsmouth.
"What's wrecking the economy is the fact that we have a shortage of employees of people coming to work, and the reason they're not coming to work is because they're not getting paid a decent wage to live on," Lucas says. "So, it's not a $15 minimum wage that's wrecking the economy. It's the fact that we are not paying people enough to live on."
Raising the minimum wage is a top priority for Democratic lawmakers, which is why the legislation is Senate bill number one and House bill number one.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
