Virginia ranks third behind only Maryland and Delaware among the worst states for the average amount of back wages companies owe to their workers. Virginia employers owe an average of more than $1,600 to nearly 3,500 employees.
A report from the financial training website Goat Academy analyzing federal data found since 2021, nearly 4,800 wage theft violations have occurred.
Paul Falabella, attorney and past president of the Virginia Employment Lawyers Association, said wage theft laws were passed only recently in the Commonwealth. He pointed out a lack of oversight combined with a construction boom may have contributed to Virginia's wage theft problem.
"Virginia had no state law on wage theft and didn't have the ability for workers to sue directly," Falabella noted. "Workers had to go to either the federal or the state Department of Labor."
It changed in July 2020, when the Virginia Wage Payment Act went into effect. The law gave workers the right to sue their employers in court for wage theft, which previously was impossible.
Falabella added more resources at the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry would help address wage theft issues. But he acknowledged labor law enforcement depends on who is leading the Commonwealth.
"The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry has been underfunded for a long, long time," Falabella asserted. "It's a little better now, but it depends on who's in charge, who's in the governor's office, how robust that enforcement might be, how much attention they're going to focus on workers' rights."
The report, which analyzed U.S. Department of Labor data, found in total, more than $128 million in back wages are owed to U.S. workers.
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By Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Virginia News Connection reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration
As a mathematician who solves problems, Dr. Bourama Toni is looking to make sure young people from underserved backgrounds have access to careers in the data economy.
“Data analytics and data science are in demand. People who are left out in math will also be left out in anything related to math, which will be very unfortunate,” says Toni, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Howard University. Data analysts and data scientists require different skills and the job outlook for both occupations is strong.
Hiring for data analysts is expected to grow 23% in the decade between 2023 and 2033, with a median salary of $83,640. A bachelor’s degree is usually required. The demand for data scientists is even higher and is expected to grow 36% in the same time period with a median salary of $108,020, with at least a bachelor’s degree.
Diversity in these fields is not. For example, it’s estimated only 4% of data scientists are Black.
That is why Howard University, the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab, and Google partnered to offer a year-long data analytics course to students from Title I high schools which have high rates of poverty. A large percentage of the population are students of color.
The program is introducing more high school students to the potential career by allowing them to take college courses and earn an industry certificate at no cost. Training consists of teacher-led online courses at their high schools, with teaching fellows offering instruction and serving as mentors in the classroom at participating schools.
Making Equity Part of the Data Economy Equation
With opportunities in the field growing, the National Education Equity Lab is working to ensure that students from historically underrepresented communities aren’t left out. The Data Analytics program that started in the fall of 2024 is part of the organization’s mission to advance economic and social mobility for the students it serves.
“We were founded on the belief, and the reality, that talent is evenly distributed in our nation, but that opportunity is not. And, as an organization, we were created to help change that,” say Laura Moore, chief higher education officer at the organization.
“We see this as being a really powerful way to not only expose our scholars to that field, but give them the tools and resources they need to be active participants and leaders in that field, if they so choose,” adds Moore.
In the five years since the organization was started, it’s partnered with more than one dozen universities and others, and counts 33,000 high school students served with 80% of them passing college courses and getting credits for them, according to Moore.
Gaining a Google Data Analytics Certificate
While it’s worked with Howard University on several programs offering college credits to high school students in subjects including college algebra, what is different about this data analytics program is that students can also earn a Google Data Analytics certificate along with six credits.
“We see the addition of this certified, industry-recognized career credential to be a really powerful tool that students have in their toolbox. It really just opens up additional opportunities for them whatever their path is after high school,” explains Moore.
Easing Student Debt
Some 226 high school students from around the country are enrolled in the Data Analytics program. One of those schools is the Columbia Heights Education Campus, a public school in Washington D.C., serving roughly 1,600 students.
“We pride ourselves on providing accessibility to all students who express interest in learning. We provide a rigorous curriculum for those students,” says Wendy Pugh, assistant principal at the school and a co-teacher for the program.
Eighteen students in the school are enrolled. Pugh says she is pleased with the result from the first semester. “I would say 90% of those students have received an A, so it just proves that when given access and support our students can perform with that level of rigor,” stresses Pugh.
She sees that the program is valuable in financially, too. “One of our biggest challenges overall is students being able to afford higher-level education.
“One of the biggest motivators for me, and my co-teacher, was just having the opportunity to provide these college-level courses for free for our students. Overall, it reduces the amount of debt one will have going to the next level,” adds Pugh.
That next level offers a different option than a four-year degree with the Google Data Analytics degree.
Providing an Additional Option
“Because they’re coming from low-income families, some of them may not be interested in pursuing any degree. That’s also okay. I understand perfectly the pressure of the family, saying, ‘look, you finished high school, why don’t you get a job?’ So if we can give them that option as well, it’s great,” explains Howard University’s Toni.
Among the steps taken to prepare students to be more marketable, he says, was to change the syllabus from learning Python to RStudio.
Should students choose to enter the workforce after graduating high school and the year-long data analytics program, he explains they can apply for entry level jobs to any company using data.
The Google program also works with employers interested in hiring students who’ve earned the Google certificates.
The average base salary for an entry level data analyst, according to Indeed, is $22.49 an hour.
Math = Motivation and Confidence
While the college credits and data industry certificate give these students an advantage leaving high school, the other thing the program seeks to do is far more personal.
“What we’re trying to do in the program is to build confidence. They do not have that confidence because of their background,” Toni explains. “This is a major part of the work we try to do to tell them you can do it.”
That lack of confidence, he says, is due in large part to the way students were taught math. He came to that conclusion after witnessing students fail in college algebra courses offered to Title I high schools.
“The frustrating side of it: It’s just motivation. They have the skill,” adds Toni. He firmly believes that if students are taught how math is applied to everyday life and jobs, they will succeed. “You just need to understand why you need it, why you’re doing it, why it’s useful.”
He aims to increase enrollment in the program next fall in hopes of reaching more underserved students to change the way they approach math and see how it’s tied to good-paying jobs that are in-demand.
“The key thing is: how do I motive anyone that math and the related fields of data science, artificial intelligence, data analytics and computer science, that if you feel comfortable in math, you don’t have to worry about performing in any of these fields.”
Ramona Schindelheim wrote this article for WorkingNation.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Since 2021, union elections in Maryland and across the country have more than doubled - and union election wins are at a 15-year high.
But President Donald Trump's administration is seen as taking action to weaken labor laws.
The National Labor Relations Board, which rules on labor practices and elections, was one target. Just days into his term, Trump fired its head, Gwynne Wilcox, a Biden appointee.
Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst with the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, said this doesn't bode well for organized labor.
"There will still be organizing, but unions and workers may be hesitant to bring cases to the NLRB," said Poydock. "President Trump has made it clear that he expects members to rule in favor of employers."
A federal judge ruled earlier this month that Wilcox must be reinstated at the NLRB, but Trump administration attorneys appealed the decision.
Despite the stance of the Trump administration, unions remain extremely popular among the general public. A Gallup poll in 2024 found that 70% of Americans view unions favorably.
That's up from a low of 48% in 2009. Poydock said support for unions from the general public - even those who don't belong to a union - is key to keeping momentum strong.
"Public solidarity helps support unions, when they're trying to win a union contract or when their employer violates labor law," said Poydock. "So public support is key in the mix of union organizing right now."
In 2024, Maryland workers held 54 union elections. Notably, workers at a string of marijuana dispensaries voted to unionize.
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Professors on college campuses across the country are unionizing at increasingly higher rates and a bill in the Maryland General Assembly may help the efforts at state universities.
The legislation would give faculty at Morgan State University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and faculty in the University of Maryland system the right to form a union. Another bill would also offer collective bargaining rights to graduate assistants at Maryland universities.
Del. Linda Foley, D-Montgomery, said the legislation would give teachers at each university the freedom to decide.
"If they desire and they vote for a union representative to represent them, then they can bargain a contract with their employer," Foley explained.
The bill includes full-time or part-time faculty, and those who are either on tenure or non-tenure tracks. Foley added faculty at Maryland community colleges are already able to organize unions.
Since 2012, the number of unionized faculty across the country has grown more than 7%, with more than a quarter of all faculty belonging to a union. More than 80% of unionized college faculty members are nontenured. Foley, a former vice president of the Communications Workers of America, said despite perceptions, unions are not just for blue collar workers.
"Just because they're not doing manual labor or you know working in a sweatshop so to speak, doesn't mean that workers don't have rights to collective bargaining or that collective bargaining isn't meaningful," Foley emphasized. "It certainly is, because there are many, many issues that collective bargaining can address."
She added workers could benefit from negotiating with an employer about hours, wages and working conditions which would otherwise be more difficult without a union.
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