What do you need to know to hire in Virginia?
A bracketed income tax topping at 5.75%, a $12.77 wage floor above the federal rate, and an at-will baseline the Virginia Values Act narrows for employers with as few as six staff. Each Virginia guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· Virginia, United States guide
Illustration · Richmond, Virginia
Virginia withholds a bracketed income tax that tops out at 5.75% across 4 bands, and it pays a $12.77 minimum above the federal floor. The unemployment-insurance schedule and the Virginia Values Act discharge thresholds are where the real work sits.
The federal floor is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA set the baseline. Everything Virginia adds on top, the 5.75% top rate, the $8,000 unemployment base, the enacted paid-leave timeline, is what these guides cover.
Most employers budget for withholding and the unemployment base and miss that a Virginia employer with as few as six staff can face a state wrongful-discharge claim with uncapped damages. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in Virginia?
Virginia runs on the federal employment floor with a real state layer on top. There's a bracketed income tax that tops at 5.75% over 4 bands, a $12.77 minimum wage above the federal rate, and overtime at time and a half after the 40-hour federal week.
Where Virginia gets specific is the income-tax withholding, the unemployment schedule, an enacted paid-leave timeline, and the Virginia Values Act discharge thresholds. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first Virginia hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security at 6.2% each side to $184,500, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. Virginia layers its own income-tax withholding, its own unemployment tax, an enacted paid-sick-leave timeline, and its own discharge thresholds on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the Virginia-specific layer, and the four guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in Virginia?
The Virginia-specific cost is income-tax withholding plus unemployment insurance, on top of the federal pass-through. Withholding follows a bracketed schedule that tops at 5.75%, with an $8,750 standard deduction for a single filer.
Unemployment insurance runs on an $8,000 taxable wage base. A new employer starts at 2.5%, and experience-rated accounts land between 0.1% and 6.2%.
State income tax: a bracketed schedule across 4 bands topping at 5.75%, with an $8,750 standard deduction for a single filer. Minimum wage: $12.77 an hour, above the federal floor, with a $2.13 federal cash floor for tipped roles topped up to the state minimum. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, no daily rule, no meal break for adults.
Unemployment insurance: an $8,000 wage base, 2.5% for a new employer, 0.1% to 6.2% once experience-rated. Final pay: on or before the next regular payday, whether the worker quits or is discharged.
Sources: Virginia Tax, employer withholding guide, Virginia Employment Commission, employer taxes, and Virginia DOLI, 2026 minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from withholding setup to the SUTA filing cadence, the tip credit, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the Virginia tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The Virginia guides, one layer at a time
Four Virginia guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same Virginia source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
The 4-band withholding schedule topping at 5.75%, the $8,750 single deduction, the $8,000 SUTA base, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $12.77 minimum above the federal floor, the 40-hour overtime week, the tip credit, and why Virginia mandates no meal break for adults.
Paid family & sick leave
The enacted general paid-sick-leave timeline, the home-health mandate already live, what federal FMLA covers at 50+ employees, and the pregnancy accommodation rules at 15+.
Termination & at-will exceptions
The Virginia Values Act discharge thresholds reaching employers with as few as six staff, the next-payday final-pay rule, and the federal WARN math on a mass layoff.
The Virginia worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does Virginia compare to its neighbours?
Virginia carries a bracketed income tax and a minimum above the federal floor, but each neighbour breaks the pattern somewhere. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Maryland runs its own graduated income tax and a higher minimum wage than Virginia. Kentucky levies a flat income tax and stays on the federal wage floor. North Carolina pairs a flat income tax with the federal minimum wage, below the $12.77 Virginia pays.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the income-tax shape, the SUTA base, the leave mandate, and the discharge thresholds are not.
How does Teamed hire in Virginia for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Virginia for from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the income-tax withholding, the unemployment registration, the next-payday final-pay rule, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Virginia hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the Virginia Values Act discharge line and the next-payday final-pay rule. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A Virginia contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Virginia hire, until it isn't.
Virginia reads as a middle-of-the-road state: a bracketed income tax, a minimum a little above federal, a familiar at-will baseline. The catch is the Virginia Values Act, which lets an employee at a six-person shop bring a wrongful-discharge claim with uncapped damages. These guides exist so the first Virginia hire never becomes the first Virginia filing.
Virginia looks like a balanced state to hire in. A bracketed income tax topping at 5.75%, a minimum just above federal, an at-will baseline.
The balance shifts at separation. The Virginia Values Act reaches a six-person employer, and the damages are uncapped.
Read the right guide before the first hire, not after the first claim.
