By Anna Bryson

Virginia’s Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday said if she is elected governor, she would sign legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

At an event in Eastern Henrico County with union leaders, Spanberger emphasized her support for implementing economic policies that she said would help working-class families.

“Addressing (minimum wage) shouldn’t be a partisan issue, no matter if you’re a Democratic legislator, Republican legislator, you represent Virginians who are struggling,” Spanberger said. “You represent Virginians who have to decide between refilling their prescriptions or keeping the lights on. If you elect me governor, I will sign the bill that will give you a pay raise.”

In 2024 and again this year Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation the General Assembly passed to raise the minimum wage, over time, to $15 per hour. Virginia’s minimum wage is now $12.41 per hour.

At the event, Spanberger also underscored her support for collective bargaining and paid sick leave without backing any specific policy proposals regarding those two issues. She did not take questions from reporters.

Youngkin also recently vetoed measures to require state government entities and localities to engage in collective bargaining with public employees and to guarantee paid sick leave for all Virginia workers.

“Throughout our country’s history, unions have made things possible,” Spanberger said. “Unions have not only built America’s middle class, but they’ve been a vehicle for economic stability, even when times are tough.”

In 2020, the General Assembly overturned the 1977 ban on public-sector collective bargaining, but the law requires each locality to opt-in, meaning the city council, board of supervisors or school board must vote to permit its employees to negotiate.

“During the last administration here in Virginia, we took important steps towards strengthening collective bargaining rights, and in 2026 I look forward to working with members of our General Assembly to make sure more Virginians can negotiate for the benefits and fair treatment that they earn through their work,” Spanberger said Tuesday.

Since the law went into effect in May 2021, only 11 of Virginia’s 132 school boards have signed resolutions to approve collective bargaining for school employees.

Sharon Gilbert, an administrative office associate at Richmond’s William Fox Elementary School who spoke at Tuesday’s event, said the Richmond Education Association’s contract ensures teachers are compensated for taking on more students as a result of teacher absences and ensures there is bilingual support staff in schools with high populations of English learners.

“We also got pay increases and benefits necessary to reduce costly staff turnovers, which many in our school community, including parents, have been worried about,” Gilbert said. “But right now, this freedom to come together and collectively bargain that we have in Richmond is not guaranteed to all Virginians, and that hurts all of us.”

Spanberger did not address the state’s right-to-work law, which ensures employees in unionized workplaces cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues, but they can still receive union protections.

She also addressed what she called “chaos” in the federal economy spurred on by the Trump administration’s tariffs and firing of federal workers.

“To make matters worse, our current administration here in Virginia doesn’t seem to care,” Spanberger said. “We have a governor who is not speaking out. We have a lieutenant governor who is not speaking out, and we have an attorney general who, instead of speaking out, is sitting on the sidelines.”

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is the GOP nominee for governor, running against Spanberger.

Peyton Vogel, press secretary for the Earle-Sears campaign, said in a statement: “Abigail Spanberger has no business lecturing Virginians about the right to work or the cost of living. She backed job-killing policies that raised costs and hurt Virginia families. Winsome trusts working families and small business owners to drive Virginia forward — not Washington politicians with a failed agenda.”