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Senate committee advances amended minimum‑wage bill after hearings from labor and business
Summary
The Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance heard testimony on Bill 36‑0030 to raise the USVI minimum wage and approved an amendment setting phased increases to $12 (2026), $14 (2027) and $15 (2028) with a COLA mechanism beginning in 2029; the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Economic Research recommended clearer COLA language and filling the wage‑board vacancies.
Senators heard more than two hours of testimony on Nov. 17 about Bill 36‑0030, which would raise the U.S. Virgin Islands minimum wage from $10.50 (frozen since 2018) in a phased schedule that the committee amended and approved to send forward.
Senator Franklin D. Johnson, the bill sponsor, framed the measure as an effort to help working families living under sharply higher costs since 2018. "If you walk in the Virgin Islands, you should be able to live in the Virgin Islands," Johnson said, urging action after seven years without a territory‑wide increase and citing local price spikes in groceries, housing and utilities.
The Department of Labor told the committee it supports the revised schedule. Commissioner Gary Molloy said the bill, as amended on Nov. 13, would raise the minimum to $12 on March 1, 2026, $14 on March 1, 2027,…
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