Richmond, Virginia—Today, we moved closer to pay equity and racial justice when the Virginia Senate voted to remove the exemptions that excluded farmworkers from earning the minimum wage. HB157, sponsored by Delegate Adele McClure, narrowly passed the Senate by a vote of 20-19 and will move to the Governor’s desk for a signature. The exemption from the minimum wage for farmworkers, which HB 157 repealed, targeted some of our community’s most vulnerable families. Farmworkers have historically suffered from poverty-level wages despite the fact that they perform some of the most difficult and dangerous work that exists.
“Farmworker exemptions are racist relics of Jim Crow designed to keep a vulnerable group of workers in poverty and in the shadows,” LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director of Progress Virginia, said. “Farmworkers are essential workers who deserve the same respect as any other worker, and we celebrate that from here forward, they will earn at least the minimum wage, just like everyone else. Governor Youngkin took an oath to serve everyone in our community and treat people fairly; he must sign this bill into law. All working families deserve a raise, particularly our most vulnerable, and we won’t stop fighting until we make that a reality.”
Background:
- The minimum wage is currently $12.00 an hour; if bills passed in 2024 are signed into law, the minimum wage will increase to $13.50 in 2025 and $15 in 2026.
- If the minimum wage kept up with productivity, the wage would be $21.50 per hour.
- Farmworkers were excluded from the minimum wage when it was adopted in 1938. In 1938, most farmworkers were Black, and Southern states led the objection to extending the minimum wage to Black agricultural workers.
- In 1966, Congress extended the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25/hr) to farmworkers, but they are still excluded from federal overtime requirements, union protections, and OSHA protections/workers’ compensation laws in many states.