Dear , The madness is over! With your help, we've made enormous strides for justice in the Commonwealth. Here’s a link to media coverage during the General Assembly and below is a summary of what we've accomplished: LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES Minimum Wage Increase. Both the House and Senate passed a minimum wage increase that is a great step forward for working families. The final bill (SB 7) has wage increases as follows: Jan 1, 2021: $9.50, Jan 2, 2022: $11, Jan 1, 2023: $12, Jan 1, 2025: $13.50, Jan 1 2026: $15. Between Jan 1, 2022 and Dec 1, 2023, a robust study will be conducted to examine regionalism options and the General Assembly will have to act again in 2024 to implement the last wage increases and consider regionalism options. VICPP was very concerned about the regionalism plan that was in the bill passed in the Senate. The final bill, which requires a regionalism study, is fine. The final bill removes many of the bad exemptions of the minimum wage bill. It removes the piecework exemption, which was also passed in a stand-alone bill, the exemption for those with disabilities, the small business exemption, and the domestic worker exemption, another stand-alone bill. These are great steps forward. We are disappointed about two aspects of the bill. It continues to exempt farmworkers from the minimum wage. VICPP will encourage the Governor to amend this section of the bill and remove the farmworker exemption. The bill creates a training wage that is 75 percent of the minimum wage for the first 90 days of employment. This provision wouldn't be horrible if it weren't abused, but often employers will hire people for 89 days and then fire them to avoid paying the higher wage.
Driver’s Licenses for All. The House and Senate passed a bill that will give people of differing immigration status the ability to obtain a Driver's Privilege Card (HB1211/SB34). Technically, the final bill (HB 1211) is a driver's privilege card that is treated as a category of driver's licenses. Advocates are working to ensure that the look of the card will not open people up to discrimination and that the substantial privacy concerns will be addressed. If and when these concerns are addressed, this legislation will be a great step forward for Virginia. In-State Tuition. The bills to allow all who meet the Virginia residency requirements to receive in-state tuition (HB 1547ER) passed both chambers and we are waiting for the Governor to sign. Another great victory. Wage Theft Reforms. All our wage theft bills have passed and are in various stages of moving to the Governor (HB 336, SB 49ER, HB 123, SB 78, SB 48ER, HB 337 and SB 838). These bills remove the piece work exemption from the minimum wage law, protect wage theft victims against retaliation when they file a wage theft complaint, strengthen the Department of Labor and Industries' ability to investigate wage theft, and allow attorneys to take wage theft claims to court. We have been working on all of these bills for the past four years. These are major victories in the fight against wage theft. Comprehensive Predatory Lending Reform. Predatory lending bills (SB 421ER) have passed both chambers and should be sent to the Governor soon. Thanks to the leadership of the Virginia Poverty Law Center for its work on the amazing accomplishment to curb predatory lending. Environmental Justice. The Governor has signed the bill codifying the Environmental Justice Council (HB 1042ER) into law! The bills to establish environmental justice as the policy of the Commonwealth (HB 704 and SB 406) have passed both chambers and should be sent to the Governor soon. These bills make Virginia a policy leader on environmental justice. Energy Burden. There were lots of great energy bills this year. We were particularly engaged in supporting the bills to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and use some of the revenue to invest in energy efficiency. SB 1027ER passed both chambers and will be sent to the Governor. This is a great environmental victory.
LEGISLATIVE DEFEAT Paid Sick Days. The conference committee report on our Paid Sick Days bill (SB 481) passed the House 52-45, but was killed in the Senate. See our news release on the issue. We are terribly disappointed, of course, but we will try again next year. By the end of the General Assembly, we had garnered enormous attention to the issue. We have quite a bit of work to do to help legislators understand why so many people desperately need paid sick days. We'll be talking with our board and chapter leaders in the coming weeks about next steps.
Overall, it was a fabulous session. We made great progress on almost every priority issue. And even our paid sick day bill went way further than expected and helped to lay the groundwork for passing it in 2021. The General Assembly will vote on a budget tomorrow (Thursday, March 12) and the Governor has until April to sign or amend bills, but mostly we are done. At least the crazy hours and nonstop emails are over until next year. I learned a lot this session and will write up my reflections soon, but one important lesson I relearned was the importance of talking with legislators before the session begins. So don't be surprised when I ask you to arrange meetings with your legislators in the summer and fall. (We'll give most of them a break this spring.) Thank you again for all you've done this session. Collectively, we made a tremendous impact. Kim Bobo
Executive Director
|
