Opinion/Column: Basic support makes Va. great for business and workers

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis have just released a report called The State of Working Virginia, looking at wages, benefits such as insurance and childcare, the right to organize, and wage theft (yes, sometimes workers are not paid).

The report describes recent improvements for Virginia workers. For example, Virginia has raised its minimum wage from $7.25 an hour in 2020 to $11.00 an hour today. Thanks largely to Medicaid expansion and insurance premium subsidies, more Virginia workers now have health insurance, lowering our rate of uninsured adults under the age of 65 from 12.7% in 2018 to 8.2% in 2021. Help in paying for childcare is also now available for Virginians whose income is below 85% of the state median income.

Virginia has also made it mandatory that employers provide paystubs so workers can ensure that they are paid properly. Most of us automatically receive pay stubs, and so this change may not sound like a big win for workers. Imagine, however, if you always had to take your employer's word that your pay was calculated correctly and never had documentation if you needed to dispute your pay. Now, you understand why this administrative change is so important to the rights of workers.

Because of changes such as these, Virginia's workers definitely had more to celebrate this Labor Day. Nonetheless, Virginia workers continue to face serious challenges.

The State of Working Virginia report reveals that, after adjusting for inflation, Virginia's median wage in 2021 was down compared to the prior year. With the additional inflation increases in the first half of 2022, we can expect that working Virginians have fallen even farther behind. Low-wage workers who already live at the edge of financial crisis have been hit hard. Low wages impact Black and Latinx workers even more dramatically. For every dollar that a white worker was paid in Virginia in 2021, Black workers were paid 74 cents and Latinx workers were paid 68 cents.

In addition to low wages, which make it difficult to afford necessities, many Virginia workers also lack basic benefits. We know that every worker will get sick at some point; yet 1.2 million Virginia workers, including many essential workers, do not receive paid sick leave. Two-thirds of grocery store chain workers and 85% of chain pharmacy workers do not have paid sick days. When a worker who is paid $12 an hour loses 3.5 days of wages, he ends up losing the entire month's grocery budget.

Data indicates that joining a union can help workers. Union workers have earned more than non-union workers in Virginia for decades. Yet Virginia's "right-to-work" laws make unionizing difficult. This negative impact of "right-to-work" laws is apparent when comparing "right-to-work" states with states that do not have such laws: "Right-to-work" states like Virginia have lower wages and fewer benefits for individual workers, as well as a higher percentage of low-wage jobs compared to high-wage jobs.

Virginia workers don't have basic benefits that are a given in other wealthy countries. They also lack a sufficient safety net for workers who lose their jobs. Unemployed workers in Virginia are less likely to receive help from unemployment insurance system than workers in other states. When Virginia's workers do receive these benefits, the benefits are below typical levels in other states.

So is Virginia a great place for workers? Virginia has made some improvements, but many of Virginia's policies still create barriers to workers' economic security. It is still possible for Virginia to be great for business and great for workers. But to do that Virginians must ensure that state lawmakers affirm and adhere to Virginia's commitment to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. Legislators should also ensure that all workers receive at least five paid sick days a year. Politicians and employers must support the legal right to collectively bargain. ,Finally, improved access to unemployment insurance will help secure the safety net for those who lose their jobs.

Committing to those basic steps, Virginia can become friendlier to our workers and still remain great for businesses.