Governor Abigail Spanberger is considering legislation that would undo a longstanding Jim Crow relic in Virginia law.
Farm workers don’t have to be paid the minimum wage in Virginia. That's because Virginia law has an exemption that allows them to be paid less, something the Delegate Adele McClure has spent years trying to overturn.
"Actually, it's rooted in Jim Crow, and it was very explicitly stated by a congressman that the Black workers should not be paid equal to the white worker," McClure says.
That would be Texas Congressman Martin Dies, founder and chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. During the debate on the Fair Labor Standards Act, he said, "You cannot prescribe the same wages for the Black man as the white man."
"And so, this is a Jim Crow-era relic that finally needs to be taken out of our code," says McClure. "So, I'm really excited to send this to the governor's desk and really, really hopeful that she'll sign this into law to finally include these hardworking Virginians in our Minimum Wage Act."
Her bill passed the Senate this week, and a similar bill was introduced by Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy of Prince William County passed the House last week, although Carroll Foy says she would have preferred the bill also include temporary workers from other countries.
"I'm not very excited about the fact that we did not include our H2 visa workers because I believe that everyone should get paid a minimum wage," Carroll Foy says. "But that's more work for us next year."
She says she'll come back to that issue next year. For now, though, McClure and Carroll Foy are hopeful Spanberger will sign the bill.
