In a move that shouldn’t surprise anyone, the Republican Governor of Virginia Glen Youngkin has recently blocked a proposal that would have seen a minimum wage increase to $13.50 per hour next year and up to $15 an hour in 2026. The reason stated by Youngkin had to do with the nature of the “free-market.” In his words “The free market for salaries and wages works.” Furthermore, while Youngkin admits that the increase would have no effects in NOVA “where economic conditions create a higher cost of living”, he claims that they would harm the small business owners in the South. Ignoring the fact that those very same small business owners are probably suffering under the same “higher cost of living”. Since such a thing is more a nationwide issue rather than one that is in a specific locality. While it is true that the cost of living may be higher in the North, it doesn’t mean they’re in any way better or less costly in the south.
This statement also carries an assumption that people in NOVA are gliding through the economy on wings of gold, and that a “one-size-fits-all mandate” as the Governor puts it would make no sense if it harms the small business owner. Again the truth is not on Youngkin’s side. Most people in the middle class area are still struggling to stay afloat, wondering if and when the high tide will come in and knock them down the poverty line. Inflation bought on by corporate price-gouging and increases in rent make life in America difficult at best, and impossible at worst. An increase to the minimum wage, no matter how modest and or gradual , would be a step to alleviating these economic pressures.
Of course Youngkin does not see it that way. In the Republican fantasy world the problem is “big government” messing about with the free-market that the Governor himself apparently understands so well. Less regulation, more tax cuts (usually to the wealthy) are the answer, not giving people more money to combat the growing prices of…well, almost everything! It shouldn’t go without saying also that this came after a much-publicized attempt to bring a professional sports arena to Alexandria fell through due to “[…]community opposition, questions about its public financing scheme and partisan combat in Richmond” as the Virginia Mercury put it.
Whether or not the vetoes against the minimum wage increase and other Democratic initiatives is retaliation for the “implosion”, I’ll leave for the reader to decide. Regardless this is a blow to any hope of making working class lives less difficult. There has yet to be any word from Virginia Democrats as to where the $15 minimum wage drive will go from here.
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