Like many others, I work a minimum wage job. With my car payment popping up once a month, and my future looking expensive, my job does not always cover everything. While I only work part-time, and I have the luxury of still being able to rely on my parents for the majority of my needs, many families in Virginia do not have the same privilege. Many rely on a minimum wage job to support their family.
At the start of 2023, the minimum wage for Virginia was raised from $11.00 per hour to $12.00 per hour, and on Jan. 1, 2025, it went up 3.4%, bringing it to $12.41. While this latest increase is slightly above the current inflation rate, many believe this is not a living wage and that it should be raised. According to an article by ABC News in 2023, “As cost increases persist and workers try to keep up, buzzwords like ‘poverty wage,’ ‘minimum wage,’ and ‘living wage’ are coming back into the lexicon, shaping conversations about what it means to make enough and who decides where to draw the line.” The point made by this article is still relevant in 2025, as many continue to struggle daily to support themselves and their families while working for $12.41 an hour.
In fact, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the living wage for a single working adult with no children to provide for is $25.65. For a single working adult with one child, it is $42.46, with two children it is $53.39, and with three children it is $67.33.
For many companies, especially small businesses, these wages may not be realistic based on what some employers can afford to pay and remain in business. However, the Living Wage Calculator also shows that for a single adult with three children, the poverty wage would be $15.46, which is still $3.05 above the current minimum wage of $12.41, which adds to many people opinion that the current minimum wage is not doable.
To see if students at FCHS agreed that the minimum wage should be raised, I asked a few students who are either looking for employment or are currently working. Junior Maya Hernandez is currently on the hunt for a job and has already come across some things that concern her.
“I have been looking for a job for a few months now, I am not really picky when it comes to work. I understand that to make money, you have to work hard, but during my job hunt, I have realized that first of all, not many places are looking to hire, especially around Fluvanna. I have also realized that not every place is particularly concerned with what their employees make, which leads to employees often overworking in order to keep a job, and still not making what they need for college savings, or even to put food on the table,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez feels that the current minimum wage is unreasonable. “In my opinion, inflation should play a larger role in the minimum wage. How are people expected to keep up with their demanding expenses when their job is not paying them enough?” she said. She added that she feels the government needs to pay more attention to the working class, focusing more on domestic prosperity.
While the current minimum wage certainly has its downsides, some feel that there are reasons to keep it where it is, at least for now. According to the Cato Institute, raising the minimum wage “would have little effect on reducing poverty,” pointing out that, “In the previous federal minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $7.25, only 15% of the workers who were expected to gain from it lived in poor households,” meaning that only 15% of the people who were struggling the most were expected to improve their living conditions as a result of the increase.
There are some negatives to increasing the minimum wage, of which workers might be unaware. According to the Cato Institute, raising the minimum wage would also result in higher prices for consumers and reduce job opportunities.
FCHS junior Madeline Hamel, who currently works at Watermarks Camp, notes that “The minimum wage right now, while very flawed, is also the reason small businesses are able to hire the help that they need. My job is a non-profit organization, so we do not always have lots of flexibility money-wise. I am not sure if we would be able to keep some of the surplus positions we currently have if the minimum wage is exponentially raised next year.”
According to an article written by Mark Gad on CBS 19 News, the minimum wage in Virginia is set to be raised to $15.00 on Jan. 1, 2026, increasing pay but possibly leading to increased prices for consumers.
In a perfect world, those who work hard would always succeed, but what people tend to forget is that the economy is constantly fluctuating. There will always be jobs that need to be filled, there will always be businesses that struggle to stay afloat, and there will always be someone who doesn’t make enough to support themselves.
