Newly-Passed $15 Minimum Wage Bill Sheds Vestige of Slavery By Including Farm Workers
Agriculture is Virginia’s Largest Private-Sector Industry
RICHMOND, Va.
–
The $15 minimum wage bill
passed yesterday
by the Virginia House of Delegates removes the state’s exemption for farm workers,
thanks to legislation
sponsored by Delegate Elizabeth Guzman that was incorporated into the bill.
“It’s common knowledge many of Virginia’s exemptions to the minimum wage law were rooted in race,” said Delegate Guzman. “All workers, including immigrants and people of color, deserve a living wage. Farm workers perform arduous tasks in difficult, often dangerous conditions. It’s past time we give these workers the same protection as everyone else.”
Farm workers have had few labor protections at both the state and federal levels, which is rooted in the history of slavery and sharecropping. Farm workers were excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which gave minimum wage protections to most other workers.
In an article published in the Texas Law Review,
Marc Linder noted
, “To enact the social and economic reforms of the New Deal, President Roosevelt and his allies were forced to compromise with southern congressmen. Those congressmen negotiated with Roosevelt to obtain modifications of New Deal legislation that preserved the social and racial plantation system in the South – a system resting on the subjugation of blacks and other minorities. As a result, New Deal legislation, including the FLSA, became infected with unconstitutional racial motivation.”
According to the Congressional Record, a
Southern Congressman argued in 1937
that, “There has always been a difference in the wage scale of white and colored labor … you cannot put the Negro and the white man on the same basis and get away with it.”
In a 1935 article,
Robert Weaver, who held the title “Adviser on Negro Affairs” in the Department of the Interior, wrote “Over a half of the gainfully employed colored Americans are concentrated in domestic service and farming.”
The bill also removes Virginia’s exemption for domestic workers.
Last year, the Virginia General Assembly
successfully removed
the Jim Crow-era exemptions of “newsboys, shoe-shine boys, ushers, doormen, concession attendants and theater cashiers” from the state’s minimum wage law.
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Delegate Elizabeth Guzman represents the 31st District of the Virginia House of Delegates, covering Southern Prince William County and Eastern Fauquier County. Guzman was the first Hispanic female immigrant to be elected in the Virginia Assembly, and the first member of AFSCME elected to the chamber. Guzman was elected on a promise to expand Medicaid for all Virginians, which was accomplished in 2018. She has also worked to improve our public schools and road conditions. She will continue to work for improved social services and mental health access.
