--- title: "Virginia Wage & Overtime Law 2026" description: "Virginia's minimum wage is $12.77 in 2026. Overtime is 1.5x after 40 hours a week, no daily overtime, and no adult meal-break mandate. Employer guide." canonical: https://www.teamed.global/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law --- United States · Virginia · Wage & hour child Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware · Payroll via SUNA Solutions # How do *Virginia wage, overtime and meal break laws* work in 2026? Virginia's minimum wage is $12.77 an hour in 2026. Overtime is 1.5 times pay after 40 hours in a week, with no daily overtime and no meal break required for adults. Last reviewed 6 June 2026 · Virginia, United States guide ![A Richmond, Virginia workplace scene at golden hour: warehouse and logistics crews on a loading dock by the James River, downtown office towers and the State Capitol dome catching warm light behind them.](/cluster-assets/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law/images/hero.webp) Illustration · Richmond, Virginia Virginia is the wage-and-hour state that gets simpler the closer you look. The [Virginia Department of Labor and Industry](https://doli.virginia.gov/programs/labor-law/virginia-labor-laws/) sets the minimum wage at **$12.77 an hour** in 2026, and overtime tracks [federal FLSA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa) rules exactly: **1.5 times pay after 40 hours in a week**, with no daily rule to catch you out. The trap is the opposite of a high-rule state. Virginia mandates **no meal break and no rest break for adults**, so the risk is assuming a protection that is not there, or misreading the brief 2021 overtime law that was rolled back. Get the 40-hour week and exemptions right and the rest is light. Compare how [Maryland approaches the same weekly threshold](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/maryland/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law) if you have staff across both states. ## What is Virginia's minimum wage in 2026? Virginia's minimum wage is **$12.77 an hour** in 2026, up from $12.41 the year before. It adjusts for inflation each January and is legislated to keep climbing toward $15 by 2028. There is **no separate Virginia tipped minimum wage**. The state uses the federal tip-credit mechanism: a tipped employee can be paid a cash wage as low as **$2.13 an hour** only if tips lift total pay to at least $12.77, and the employer covers any shortfall. The single state rate applies everywhere in Virginia under [Va. Code 40.1-28.10](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title40.1/chapter3/section40.1-28.10/), with no city or county minimum layered on top, so the same $12.77 holds in Richmond, Arlington and rural counties alike. Because it rises every January, a hire near the bottom of your pay band gets more expensive each year, so build the step-ups into the cost model rather than reacting to them. See [Virginia state tax and unemployment insurance](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/state-income-tax-and-unemployment-insurance) for how the wage floor feeds into your total employer-cost picture. For tipped roles the number that matters is the floor per hour worked, which is $12.77, not the $2.13 cash figure. If a server's tips do not bring the hour up to the full minimum, the employer pays the gap, and the tip-credit records have to prove it. Costing tipped staff at the cash wage alone is how a Virginia hospitality payroll runs short. The [US DOL Wage and Hour Division](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/) publishes tip-credit guidance that applies directly here. ## How does overtime work in Virginia? Virginia pays overtime at **1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek**, exactly like the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. There is **no daily overtime**: a long single shift triggers nothing on its own. So an employee who works four ten-hour days is owed no overtime if the week stays at 40 hours. Only hours past 40 in the week are paid at 1.5 times the rate. Virginia DOLI · Va. Code 40.1-29.2 Work one of your Virginia hires past 40 hours in any workweek and you owe 1.5x the regular rate on every excess hour, under [Va. Code 40.1-29.2](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title40.1/chapter3/section40.1-29.2/). No daily overtime applies. The Virginia Overtime Wage Act was realigned to the [FLSA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/) from 1 July 2022, so federal overtime rules, exemptions and case law govern. Source: [Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, Virginia labor laws](https://doli.virginia.gov/programs/labor-law/virginia-labor-laws/) There is a short history worth knowing. Virginia passed a standalone Overtime Wage Act effective 1 July 2021 that briefly created its own overtime regime with a different damages exposure from federal law. A year later, HB 1173 rolled it back, and from 1 July 2022 Virginia overtime tracks the [FLSA overtime standard](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime-pay) again. Guidance written for the 2021 version is out of date, so check the date on anything you rely on. In practice, you total the hours in the workweek and pay 1.5 times the regular rate on everything over 40. DOLI itself points overtime complaints to the [US DOL Wage and Hour Division](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd), which confirms federal rules are the live standard. For a side-by-side look at how a neighbouring state runs the same weekly test, see [North Carolina wage and overtime law](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/north-carolina/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law). ## What are Virginia's meal and rest break rules? Virginia requires **no meal break and no rest break for employees aged 16 and over**. There is no adult break mandate in state law at all. The one exception is minors. A worker **under 16** must get a **30-minute lunch period** after no more than **5 continuous hours**, under Va. Code 40.1-80.1. For an adult workforce, breaks in Virginia are a matter of policy, not law. You may offer rest and meal breaks, and most employers do, but the state does not compel them. Federal rules still apply where they bite: the [FLSA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/) makes short rest breaks of 20 minutes or less paid time, and a bona fide meal break is unpaid only if the employee is fully relieved of duty. A working lunch at a desk is still paid. Check how you handle [Virginia paid leave](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/paid-family-and-sick-leave) alongside your break policy. The minor rule is the only hard requirement. A 30-minute lunch after 5 continuous hours applies to under-16s under [Va. Code 40.1-80.1](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title40.1/chapter5/section40.1-80.1/), and employers of minors must keep time records showing the meal period. If you hire under-16s for seasonal or retail work in Virginia, that break and its paperwork are enforced by [DOLI's child labor unit](https://doli.virginia.gov/programs/child-labor/), with civil penalties for breaches. ## Who is exempt, and how does federal law apply? Because Virginia overtime mirrors the FLSA, exemption uses the **federal white-collar test**: a salary of at least **$684 a week**, about $35,568 a year, plus a genuine executive, administrative or professional duties test. Virginia sets no separate state salary threshold. The $684 weekly level was the 2019 figure, restored federally in May 2026 after a higher 2024 rule was struck down. The salary number alone never settles it. A worker paid above $684 a week is exempt only if the actual job duties meet the [executive, administrative or professional definition](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime/overtime-exemptions) under the FLSA. Pay a salary but assign non-exempt duties and the exemption fails, which turns every over-40-hour week into unpaid overtime and back-pay exposure. Misclassification, not the rate, is the expensive Virginia error. Use the [employer cost calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/employer-cost) to model what a misclassified worker actually costs. The federal threshold has moved recently, so date matters. A 2024 rule raised the salary level, courts vacated it, and in May 2026 the [Department of Labor](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd) restored the 2019 standard of $684 a week. If your classification was reviewed against the short-lived higher figure, it is worth a second look. Where federal and Virginia rules ever differ, the standard more generous to the employee applies. Your [Virginia termination obligations](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/termination-law-and-at-will-exceptions) also shift depending on whether the worker is correctly classified. ## How Teamed runs Virginia wage and hour compliance Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Virginia for [**from $599 per employee per month flat**](/pricing). **Zero FX mark-up**. We run the timesheet-to-payslip path so the 40-hour overtime week is calculated correctly, every cycle. You set the schedule. Teamed applies the $12.77 minimum, the 1.5 times weekly overtime, the federal $684 exemption test, and the under-16 break rule, and flags exemption risk before it becomes back-pay. Everything runs on **one platform**. **Real HR and legal experts** handle your Virginia hires and know the $12.77 minimum, the weekly-only overtime rule, the $684 exemption threshold, and the tip-credit mechanics. **An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue.** Overtime, premium pay and the no-adult-break position are applied correctly, and every cost **passes through at cost, itemised** on every invoice. **No setup fee, no exit fee.** You see every line. Contractor onboarding, [EOR payroll](/employer-of-record), and entity graduation all live on **one platform**: a Virginia contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can **graduate** to your own US entity without switching systems. Use the [Crossover Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/crossover-calculator) to see the month the model flips. [EOR](/employer-of-record) is the right model for Virginia, **until it isn't**. Teamed Legal Operations The Virginia mistake we see most is the opposite of a high-rule state. Employers brace for daily overtime or a mandated lunch break, neither of which exists for adults here, and then misclassify a salaried worker because the duties test was never checked. The exposure is not the minimum wage or a break log. It is treating a salary as proof of exemption when only the duties and the federal threshold settle it. A note from Tom Price-Daniel Virginia is the rare wage state where the danger is the rule that isn't there. No daily overtime, no adult meal break, and a 2021 law rolled back in 2022 to track [federal FLSA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/). The cost lives in exemption and the weekly count. That gap is what we run. Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed ## Related United States guides - [Virginia paid leave and sick leave](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/paid-family-and-sick-leave)sibling - [Virginia state tax & unemployment insurance](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/state-income-tax-and-unemployment-insurance)sibling - [Virginia termination law and at-will exceptions](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/virginia/termination-law-and-at-will-exceptions)sibling - [Hiring in the United States, overview](/country-hiring-guides/united-states)country parent - [North Carolina wage & overtime law](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/north-carolina/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law)neighbour - [Maryland wage & overtime law](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/maryland/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law)neighbour - [Employer of Record overview](/employer-of-record)core - [Pricing, Zero FX Fixed](/pricing)core - [EOR vs Entity Crossover Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/crossover-calculator)tool - [Employer cost calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/employer-cost)tool - [Talk to an expert](https://www.teamed.global/contact)CTA A note on this page. This is a guide, not legal advice. Virginia's minimum wage, the Virginia Overtime Wage Act, the federal white-collar exemption salary level, and the child-labor meal-break rule sit in Va. Code Title 40.1 and the federal FLSA, and can change when the General Assembly acts, DOLI issues new figures, or the US Department of Labor amends the federal rules. The minimum wage is legislated to rise further in 2027 and 2028, and the federal exemption salary level was restored in May 2026. Confirm specific figures with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, the US DOL Wage and Hour Division, or your Teamed US specialist before relying on any number here.