Virginia legislators are expected to return to Richmond Monday to finalize the Commonwealth’s budget. Among measures including the spending bill is the first pay raise for elected officials in almost 40 years.
“Virginia families are counting and watching every dollar," Republican Colonial Heights Senator Glen Sturdivant said from the chamber floor Monday, railing against the proposed pay raise. "And this budget asks those same taxpayers to fund a pay raise for the members of this body and that is wrong.”
Jefferson Forum senior fellow Steve Haner was a Republican staffer back in 1988 when they passed the last legislative raise.
“The salary was $11,000 and the proposal was to raise it to $18,000. And it was the same kind of rhetoric, about ‘How dare we do this?’" Haner said. "But in reality, it was ridiculously low, and it's been ridiculously low now for 30... Almost 40 years.”
Since then, Virginia senators make $18,000 and delegates make $17,600; the new proposal bumps that up as high as $55,000.
Haner said he was also around in the early 90s when a recession led to the two chambers' salaries to diverge. Governor Doug Wilder cut state employee wages by 2%, and Haner said Republicans, in the minority at the time, said they too should take a pay cut too.
"The amendment passed on the House floor," Haner said. "But our friends in the less numerous body paid us back in the conference report. They cut House salaries 2% but kept the Senate intact."
"That's why, for about 40 years, the House was paid less," he said. "And every time the House asked for it, the Senate would say 'No, you asked for this.'"
According to the National Conference of State Legislators legislator pay varies nationally. In New York, where they meet year-round, it’s about $140,000 a year. New Mexico, a part-time legislature like Virginia’s, doesn’t pay them at all, though that could change via a ballot referendum this fall.
Virginia's status as a part-time legislature has undoubtably played a part in its lower pay, but Haner said the part-time designation is less accurate these days.
"I don't want a full-time legislature, being here 12 months a year. Heaven forbid," he joked. "But, if they're doing the job correctly, five days a week you're doing something, getting calls from constituents 5... 7 days... 7 nights a week."
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a lawyer by trade, said the proposed pay raises are an effort to diversify the body. He said the chambers have long been filled with “people that can afford to be a legislator, people that are either independently wealthy or retired, have the independent means to be able to afford to serve."
"And I think raising the salaries will make it possible to have a legislature that looks like the rest of the state,” Surovell said.
Among those who already fit that bill is Democratic Delegate Irene Shin from Herndon. At 38, she had to step back from full-time to part-time nonprofit work after winning office in 2022.
"There's not enough hours in the day to make it all work," she told Radio IQ. "A more livable salary will allow those of us without independent wealth to hold a seat in the legislature and ensure our communities can be represented in Richmond."
But not all in her age-range, or elected seniority, agree.
Republican Amherst County Delegate Tim Griffin, who took office in 2024, is a full- time attorney. He opposes legislative raises.
"We are part-time and need to be out here hustling with our neighbors to earn it," he said of the existing wage. "It's a conflict to use taxpayer money to increase your own pay 250%."
The two junior elected officials also have different workloads. Shin is on 11 different committees and subcommittees. Griffin's committee assignments were reduced to zero after a dispute with Democratic leadership during the 2026 session.
If the raises stay in the budget, officials technically won't be raising their own salaries, the state constitution forbids that. Instead, they’ll be raising the salary for whoever holds their seat after the next election.
"If anybody wants to run against an incumbent and attack them on the salary increase, it's a perfectly legitimate issue," Haner said, noting all 140 legislative seats are up for grabs in 2027.
