During a press conference held today, Governor Ralph Northam announced that he plans to lift COVID-19 mitigation measures on June 15, including capacity restrictions, provided COVID-19 cases and vaccination numbers continue their current trending patterns.  View news coverage of the announcement: Richmond Times-Dispatch  The Virginian-Pilot  Virginia Business  Wavy News 10 Slight capacity increases had previously been announced in the seventh amended Executive Order 72 and are still slated to take effect on May 15.  The full text of Seventh Amended Executive Order 72 and Order of Public Health Emergency Nine is available here.

Pro-union advocates are pushing Senator Mark Warner to cosponsor the ‘worst bill in Congress’. It’s called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) and contains dozens of extreme labor proposals that threaten businesses and diminish employees’ rights to privacy. So far, Sen. Warner is one of only three Democrats who has chosen to listen to the small business community. He has NOT co-sponsored the PRO Act. However, labor unions are putting significant pressure on Sen. Warner to support this damaging legislation. One of the worst aspects of this legislation is that it would eliminate Virginia’s Right-to-Work law. Virginia’s Right-to-Work (RTW) law was established on January 12, 1947, and is the 5th oldest RTW statute in the United States. It guarantees that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union. Virginia’s RTW also assures that no person or organization may use intimidation, use of force, the threat of use of force, reprisal or threat of reprisal, or interrupt the work of any employee. Tell Sen. Warner today to stand with Virginia businesses and oppose the PRO Act.   TAKE ACTION    

  The minimum wage increase as passed by the General Assembly during the 2020 session is set to take effect on May 1, 2021. This legislation was originally supposed to take effect on January 1, 2021 but was amended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation increases the minimum wage in stages. Effective May 1, the hourly minimum wage in Virginia will increase to $9.50. It will increase again on January 1, 2022 to $11 an hour, and will increase to $12 an hour on January 1, 2023.Additional increases as defined by the legislation will be contingent on future actions by the General Assembly. View additional details from Jackson Lewis here.  View the bill information here.     

On Tuesday, President Biden signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program Extension Act of 2021, extending the program until May 31.     Why is this important?   The Paycheck Protection Program was set to expire on March 31, this bill continues the program for two additional months through May 31. In addition, the bill extends the authorization period for the PPP loans until the end of June, providing the Small Business Administration additional time to process the applications.    How can you learn more?   Learn more about the extension here.  Visit the SBA's Small Business PPP page here.