Here’s How Much Minimum Wage Goes Up In VA In 2025

VIRGINIA — Starting on Jan. 1, 2025, some workers in Virginia will find a little bit more in their paychecks. Minimum wage workers in the Commonwealth are among about 9.2 million nationwide who will get a pay bump in 2025.

The Virginia General Assembly voted on April 11, 2020, to amend the Virginia Minimum Wage Act, raising the hourly rate that minimum wage employees receive to $12.41 effective Jan. 1, 2025, to offset inflation.

The pay raises taking effect Jan. 1 will increase worker pay by about $5.7 billion in the 21 states that are boosting the minimum wage, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes the economic effect of policies on primarily low- and middle-income families.

In August, the Virginia Labor and Industry notified employers in the state that the minimum wage would be increased at a rate of 3.4 percent of the average Consumer Price Index for all consumer goods and services for all urban consumers. This percentage would be added to the current minimum wage of $12.

During the 2024 legislative session, both houses of the general assembly passed measures to increase the minimum wage to $13.50 beginning on Jan. 1, 2025, and then to $15 on Jan. 1, 2026, according to the Associated Press.

However, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed the legislation in March, saying that the bills would “imperil market freedom and economic competitiveness.”

“Implementing a $15-per-hour wage mandate may not impact Northern Virginia, where economic conditions create a higher cost of living, but this approach is detrimental for small businesses across the rest of Virginia, especially in Southwest and Southside,” Youngkin said, in a statement in March. “A one-size-fits-all mandate ignores the vast economic and geographic differences and undermines the ability to regional cost-of-living differences and market dynamics.”

Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas said in a statement reported by AP that the bill would have set “a standard that would affirm our commitment to the dignity of labor and the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot at economic stability.”

The raises will increase 2025 pay for minimum wage workers in Virginia by about $$97,063,000 — or an average of $421 a year.

About 6.4 percent of the workforce and about 245,500 Virginia residents are directly or indirectly affected by the minimum wage hikes. About 162,100 children — 9.1 percent of all children in the Commonwealth — live in households where a minimum wage worker lives.

Nationwide, more than a quarter (25.7 percent) of workers getting a minimum wage pay increase are parents, and more than 5.8 million children live in households where an individual will receive a minimum wage hike, the analysis said.

One in five (20.4 percent) of affected workers are in families with incomes below the poverty line, and nearly half (48.5 percent ) have family incomes below twice the poverty line.

Teenagers are often disproportionately likely to become minimum wage workers, the analysis said, but about 88 percent of those getting raises are adults. Among them, about half are full-time workers.

Of all adult workers getting a minimum wage bump in 2025, 41.4 percent have completed at least some education beyond a high school degree.

In addition to Virginia, others among the 21 raising the minimum wage in 2025 are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington.

In addition, about 48 cities and counties, mostly in California, Colorado and Washington, are raising wages above their state minimum wage floors.

Virginia is not increasing its tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour.

Most minimum wage hikes taking effect Jan. 1 are a result of state laws that tie minimum wage increases to inflation. The raises are automatic in 13 of the states and affect about 56.2 percent of workers getting raises.