Virginia still carries some of the heaviest wage remedies in the country — doubled wages, tripled when the employer acted knowingly, 8% interest, and attorney’s fees. But the General Assembly moved in 2026, and the headline most websites still run is now wrong. For any case filed on or after July 1, 2026, an employer that proves good faith and cures within fourteen days pays no extra damages at all. That change decides how a Virginia wage case gets built.
The statute now reads: “In any action to recover unpaid wages commenced on or after July 1, 2026, if the employer shows to the satisfaction of the court or the Commissioner that the act or omission giving rise to such action was in good faith and that the employer had reasonable grounds for believing that his act or omission was not in violation of this article, the court or the Commissioner shall not award any additional damages or impose any additional penalties.”1
Read the next sentence, because it is the one that matters to you: “An employer shall not claim the good faith defense unless such employer cures the violation within 14 days of being notified of the violation by paying all wages unlawfully withheld.”1 The defense has a price. An employer that argues good faith but never paid up cannot use it. Which means how and when the violation is put in writing is no longer housekeeping — it is strategy, and it belongs with counsel before anyone sends an email.
Where the defense fails, Virginia is punishing. In a private action “the court shall award the wages owed, an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, plus prejudgment interest thereon … and reasonable attorney fees and costs. If the court finds that the employer knowingly failed to pay wages to an employee, the court shall award the employee an amount equal to triple the amount of wages due and reasonable attorney fees and costs.”2 Interest runs at “an annual rate of eight percent accruing from the date the wages were due.”3
“Knowingly” is defined, and generously: a person acts knowingly with “actual knowledge of the information,” in “deliberate ignorance of the truth or falsity of the information,” or in “reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the information” — and “[e]stablishing that a person acted knowingly shall not require proof of specific intent to defraud.”4 An employer told its classifications were wrong that did nothing is in treble territory.
The 2021 version of the Act had its own machinery. That is gone. The current text: “Any employer that violates the overtime pay requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 … shall be liable to the employee for the applicable remedies, damages, or other relief available in an action brought pursuant to subsection K of § 40.1-29,” and “all applicable exemptions, overtime calculation methods, methods of overtime payment, or other overtime provisions within the federal Fair Labor Standards Act … shall apply.”5 So the standard is federal — time and a half over forty, federal exemptions, federal regular-rate math — and the remedies are Virginia’s. Still better than federal court alone. Sources describing the 2021 Act’s independent framework are describing law that no longer exists.
“From January 1, 2026, until January 1, 2027, every employer shall pay to each of its employees wages at a rate not less than the greater of (i) $12.77 per hour or (ii) the federal minimum wage.” Then $13.75 from January 1, 2027, $15.00 from January 1, 2028, and from January 1, 2029 an adjusted rate the Commissioner must set “[b]y October 1, 2028, and annually thereafter” using CPI-U, each adjustment “not … less than zero.”7
Most pages about Virginia overtime never mention § 40.1-29.3, and for this firm’s clients it is often the most important section in the chapter. It imposes an independent 40-hour overtime duty on employers of individuals “employed by a home care agency or other third-party provider to provide direct support services” — grooming, toileting, bathing, eating, dressing, monitoring health status and physical condition, and other in-home, long-term supports for an elderly person or a person with a disability — and on employers of derivative air carrier employees.8
It also prescribes its own regular rate: “the employee’s hourly rate of pay plus any other non-overtime wages paid or allocated for that workweek … divided by the total number of hours worked in that workweek.”8 If you have been paid half-time premiums on a fluctuating-workweek theory, check that math line by line. Remedies run through § 40.1-29(K) — the same doubling and trebling.8
Because the Act applies federal exemptions, the federal salary level governs: $684 per week. That figure is settled — a 2024 rule would have raised it, a court vacated the rule, and the Labor Department published a technical amendment in May 2026 restoring $684 and the $107,432 highly-compensated threshold.9
Salary is a threshold, not the test. Northern Virginia is thick with salaried managed-care case managers, care coordinators and utilization review nurses whose actual work is applying someone else’s criteria to assigned files — not the discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance the administrative exemption demands. Virginia also hands you evidence: for anyone paid below the federal standard salary level, the employer must put hours worked on the paystub and keep it three years.10
“An action under this section shall be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrued,” and the period “is tolled upon the filing of an administrative action under subsection G.”6 Overtime claims accrue on FLSA rules, within three years.5 You can file with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, but need not: the private action exists “without regard to any exhaustion of alternative administrative remedies.”2 See wage deadlines.
One structural point people get wrong. A Virginia wage action may be brought “on behalf of similarly situated employees as a collective action consistent with the collective action procedures of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 216(b).”2 That is opt-in. Co-workers who never file consent recover nothing, no matter how clear the violation. See collective actions.
Virginia bars discrimination against an employee who “has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under § 40.1-29,” with relief including reinstatement, lost wages, “and an additional amount equal to the lost wages as liquidated damages” — but that remedy runs through the Commissioner, who may act only with the employee’s written and signed consent.11 The claim you file yourself is § 40.1-27.3, and it must be brought “within one year of the employer’s prohibited retaliatory action.”12 One year — shorter than the wage claim it arises from. See retaliation protections.
Siegel Law Group concentrates in exactly these cases and has litigated managed-care overtime claims in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, including Brunty v. Optima/Sentara, as lead counsel.13 Jack Siegel grew up in a working-class family; his mother spent eighteen years at a CVS call center before being pushed out. That is why the firm represents workers and never employers.14 Read about the firm and the cases. You do not need a lawyer in Richmond or Arlington to take on a national employer.
No — not for a case filed on or after July 1, 2026. An employer that proves good faith and reasonable grounds, and that cures within 14 days of notice by paying the withheld wages, pays no additional damages or penalties.1 Where the defense fails, doubling is mandatory and trebling applies to a knowing violation.2
Actual knowledge, deliberate ignorance of the truth, or reckless disregard of it — and no proof of specific intent to defraud is required.4
Likely, under a statute written for you. § 40.1-29.3 requires time and a half over 40 hours for individuals employed by a home care agency or other third-party provider to provide direct support services, with its own regular-rate formula and the § 40.1-29(K) remedies.8
$12.77 through the end of 2026, $13.75 in 2027, $15.00 in 2028, then annual CPI-U adjustments set by the Commissioner.7
No to both. Virginia routes collective actions through the FLSA’s opt-in procedure under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), so a co-worker who files no written consent recovers nothing — and the private action is available “without regard to any exhaustion of alternative administrative remedies.”2
Every consultation is free and confidential, and the firm works on contingency — we advance the costs of the case, those costs are repaid out of any recovery, and if we do not recover you owe us nothing: no fee and no costs. Request a free case review or call (214) 790-4454.
This page is general information about Virginia and federal wage law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Law current as of October 3, 2026.
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Attorney advertising. Jack L. Siegel of Siegel Law Group PLLC, Dallas, Texas, is responsible for this content.
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