Reflection on #LiveTheWageVA

By Corrina Beall
Legislative Coordinator

While corporate profits and CEO salaries skyrocket, the minimum wage in Virginia remains stuck at $7.25 an hour, well below the poverty line. Last week, I joined elected officials, community leaders, advocates, and everyday citizens by walking in the shoes of a minimum wage worker and making ends meet on a minimum wage budget - just $77 - for one week as a participant in the Live the Wage VA Challenge.

In order to illustrate the how quickly even the smallest bump in the road can become a crisis on a minimum wage budget, #LivetheWageVA organizers challenged participants to think about how we might handle caring for a sick family member. Plot twist: I was actually doing just that! 

And you can guess what happened to my budget of $77. Insurance co-pays, prescriptions and extra trips to the grocery store all add up fast - and without benefits time off the clock is unpaid time. Thanks to my family sick leave benefits, I could leave work to care for my Mom and still draw my regular paycheck. Because I make a living wage, I could afford the gas to drive to her house to take care of her-- a journey of over 200 miles round-trip. But if I were really living the Challenge every day, I wouldn't have been able to be there for her. 

Just like anyone else, minimum wage workers have to take time away from work to care for sick family members from time to time. Families who #LivetheWageVA every day might not have the flexibility I had last week to travel to care for a sick family member. It's family sick leave, flex time benefits and a living wage that allow me to be there when my family needed me.  

These are the challenges that low wage families in Virginia face every day. No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty - or raise a family in it. Increasing the minimum wage would mean better and fairer wages for our workers, creating more customers for our businesses, producing more jobs and an overall stronger economy for the Commonwealth. 

Last week was a wake-up call. The current minimum wage in Virginia is unsustainable.