We have been talking lately about the Maryland living wage bill, a first of its kind implementation of a state wide living wage that came right on the heels of a change to the Maryland minimum wage. Then we covered, if my memory is not failing me, about how the state of Virginia’s legislature has not passed a new minimum wage. It was sort of a comparison just for the sake of comparison, as Virginia and Maryland are neighbors, and we considered if the minimum wage divide and the new Maryland living wage would make it harder for some Virginia employers—especially in the Washington DC area—to find employees.
But what I failed to cover back then—and I am terribly sorry, please forgive me!—is the fact that the living wage has been making headway in the state of Virginia on the local level, and that the state of Virginia has a grass roots effort still in effect trying for next year’s legislative session to pass a new Virginia minimum wage. Leading the charge or at least helping the charge on all these fronts is a grass roots organization called the Virginia Organizing Project.
As I said, one of its goals is to get a new Virginia minimum wage bill moved through the state legislature in the near future, which would raise the Virginia minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.50 per hour. Behind this movement is also a larger group of organizations called the Virginia Alliance for Worker Justice, which brings together religious, labor, and community groups for this one cause. It did not happen this time, but there is always the next session.
But the Virginia Organizing Project has also helped to get living wages passed in such locales as Albemarle County and as well in the city of Charlottesville, the organization’s home and the home of the University of Virginia, by the way.
