Virginia Minimum Wage 2027

The road to $15.00

Until April 30, 2021, Virginia simply used the federal $7.25. A law passed in 2020 set Virginia's own rate: $9.50 from May 1, 2021, $11.00 in 2022 and $12.00 in 2023. Its later steps took effect only if the General Assembly reenacted them before July 1, 2024. They were not reenacted, so the Commissioner of Labor and Industry adjusted the rate for inflation instead: $12.00 plus 3.4% made $12.41 for 2025, and the next adjustment made $12.77 for 2026.

In 2026 the General Assembly passed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, which Governor Abigail Spanberger signed on April 9, 2026. They wrote $12.77 into section 40.1-28.10 of the Code of Virginia and added two fixed steps: $13.75 for 2027 and $15.00 for 2028. From January 1, 2029 the Commissioner again sets the rate by October 1 of the year before, adding the increase in the national CPI-U for the latest calendar year. The adjustment can never be negative.

Farm workers: covered from January 1, 2027

Until the end of 2026 the Virginia Minimum Wage Act excludes anyone employed as a farm laborer or farm employee. Two more bills signed the same day, House Bill 20 and Senate Bill 121, end that exclusion: from January 1, 2027, the department says, farm laborers must be paid at least the Virginia minimum wage of $13.75. A second change is scheduled for July 1, 2030, when the exclusion for workers with disabilities paid under a federal subminimum wage certificate ends.

Tipped workers: $2.13 in cash

Virginia has no tipped wage of its own. The department follows the federal tip credit, so a restaurant may pay a server $2.13 an hour, but wages plus tips must reach the Virginia rate. In 2027 that means tips have to cover $11.62 of every hour at $13.75; where they fall short, the employer pays the difference.

Students, teenagers and trainees

The Virginia Minimum Wage Act does not cover these groups (section 40.1-28.9):

• anyone under 16, whoever the employer is;
• anyone under 18 working for a parent or legal guardian;
• anyone under 18 enrolled full time in high school, college or a trade school who works no more than 20 hours a week;
• full-time students of any age in a work-study program at their own school, and students in a bona fide educational program.

Federal law can still require $7.25 for some of them. Trainees in an on-the-job training program of up to 90 days that meets the department's standards can be paid 75% of the Virginia rate, or the federal minimum if that is higher: by our arithmetic $9.58 in 2026 and $10.32 in 2027, since the department publishes no rounded figure. The size of the business makes no difference: the department says the act does not exempt anyone because of the employer's size.

Northern Virginia, D.C., Maryland and West Virginia

Virginia sets one statewide rate, and we found no county or city in Virginia with a minimum wage of its own. Across the Potomac the numbers are different, which matters for anyone comparing jobs around Washington.

Searches for Virginia's rate often bring up West Virginia, a separate state with its own law: $8.75 an hour since January 1, 2016, with no change announced for 2027.

$13.75 and $15.00 as yearly pay

A 40-hour week at $13.75 pays $28,600 over 52 weeks; at $15.00 in 2028 it will be $31,200. Virginia's income tax runs from 2% to 5.75%. After the $8,750 standard deduction and the $930 personal exemption, a full-time job at $13.75 leaves $18,920 of taxable income, just past the $17,000 where the top rate starts. The Virginia paycheck calculator works it out per paycheck.

Unpaid wages and overtime in Virginia

Claims go to the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, Payment of Wage unit, fastest through the department's online portal, within three years of the date the wages were earned. A lawsuit has the same three-year limit, and the clock pauses while a complaint is pending with the department.

An employer that fails to pay owes the wages, an equal amount as liquidated damages and 8% yearly interest from the date the pay was due. If the court finds the employer knowingly failed to pay, the award is three times the wages owed, plus attorney fees. Overtime follows the federal rules, including the federal salary test of $684 a week; since July 1, 2026 the department can also investigate overtime claims.

How this is calculated

Virginia is preselected. The calculator applies the rate in force on the date you pick, $12.77 through December 31, 2026 and $13.75 from January 1, 2027, multiplies it by your weekly hours, and counts 52 weeks in a year and a twelfth of that for a month.

Take-home pay uses the 2026 federal tax brackets for a single filer, Social Security and Medicare, and Virginia's 2026 brackets after the state standard deduction and personal exemption. Tips and overtime are not included.