Virginia has become the first state in the South to establish a program offering workers 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, Governor Abigail Spanberger announced on Labor Day. The state also signed legislation creating a statewide paid sick leave policy, raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2028, and implementing additional worker protections.
Workers can use the paid leave program to welcome a new child, care for loved ones, or recover from illnesses without sacrificing pay. The statewide paid sick leave policy provides full-time and part-time workers with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to five paid sick days per year.
Virginia's minimum wage will increase to $13.75 per hour on January 1, 2027, and $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2028. Farmworkers are now entitled to minimum wage protections.
Additional protections include prohibitions on employers seeking or using a candidate's previous salary history to determine pay, requirements for employers to disclose salary information on job advertisements, and new enforcement authority for wage theft violations. The state expanded unemployment benefits to $48 more per week and created workplace standards to protect workers from dangerous heat. Healthcare workers can no longer be required to sign non-compete agreements, and homecare workers are now covered by state-law overtime protections.
The state also expanded anti-discrimination protections to cover workers at employers with five or more employees, previously limited to employers with 15 or more employees. Workers now have up to two years to file discrimination suits.