What is the new employer coverage threshold under the Virginia Human Rights Act effective July 2026?

Virginia Code 2.2-3905 generally covers employers with five or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. It separately covers employers of one or more domestic workers.

What pay information must Virginia employers include in job postings?

Virginia Code 40.1-28.7:12 requires the wage, salary, or wage or salary range in public and internal postings for jobs, promotions, transfers, and other employment opportunities. A range must be set in good faith; the law does not require a range instead of a disclosed fixed wage or salary in every posting.

Can Virginia employers still ask about salary history when hiring?

Employers generally may not seek salary history or rely on it in hiring. Under Virginia Code 40.1-28.7:12(D), voluntarily disclosed history provided without prompting may be used or confirmed to support pay above the initial offer, subject to state and federal equal-pay requirements.

Are non-compete agreements still enforceable in Virginia after July 1, 2026?

Enforceability depends on the worker, agreement, and applicable exceptions. SB 128's healthcare protections preserve agreements entered into or renewed before July 1, 2026, and the statute retains a qualifying sale-of-business exception. Section 40.1-28.7:8(C) separately limits enforcement after discharge without cause unless severance or other monetary payment is provided and was disclosed when the covenant was executed.

How long do Virginia employees now have to file a discrimination complaint?

Virginia Code 2.2-3907(A) generally requires complaints to the Virginia Office of Civil Rights within two years of the alleged discriminatory practice, unless otherwise stated in the chapter. That is not a replacement for separate federal filing deadlines or deadlines for court proceedings.

Virginia's July 2026 Employment Laws: An Employer Compliance Checklist

Virginia employers have several July 2026 changes to incorporate into hiring, employee relations, and contract administration. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) identifies new pay-transparency, noncompete, retaliation, emergency-responder, and wage-enforcement provisions effective July 1.

With the July 1 effective date here, the practical task is implementation: check active postings, update relevant agreements and policies, and train the people who make hiring and separation decisions. The details matter. A posting cure is not a general exemption from the law, and a new noncompete restriction does not automatically invalidate every existing agreement.

Pay Transparency and Salary History Ban (SB 215)

Virginia's pay transparency law requires pay information in each public and internal posting for a job, promotion, transfer, or other employment opportunity.

What the Law Requires

Disclose the wage, salary, or wage or salary range. The statute permits a fixed wage or salary as well as a range; it does not require every posting to use a range.
The range must be a good faith estimate based on applicable pay scales, previously determined ranges, actual compensation paid to employees in comparable roles, or the employer's budget.
Employers generally may not seek salary history or rely on it to consider someone for employment or set initial pay.
If an applicant voluntarily discloses history without prompting, subsection D permits reliance on or confirmation of that history to support pay above the initial offer, provided the higher pay does not violate applicable state or federal law.
Do not retaliate against applicants or employees for declining to provide salary history or requesting pay-range information.

Enforcement and Penalties

The law provides for Attorney General enforcement and private actions by aggrieved prospective employees or employees. Its remedies include:

Up to $1,000 for a first violation
Up to $5,000 for subsequent violations
Aggrieved prospective employees or employees may bring a civil action within one year, with actual damages and other appropriate legal or equitable relief

Subsection F affords an opportunity to correct posting-disclosure or good-faith-range violations before a prospective employee brings an action. After written notice, correcting the posting at the original posting locations within 15 business days prevents an action for those specified posting violations. Do not treat this as a cure for salary-history inquiries or retaliation, or as a general suspension of enforcement powers. Record when notice arrived, where the posting appeared, and when each correction was completed.

Expanded Anti-Discrimination Coverage (SB 637)

The current employer definition in the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA) generally reaches businesses with five or more employees, subject to the calendar-week test. It also separately covers employers of domestic workers. Employers should check the actual definition rather than assume that fewer than 15 employees means exemption.

Key Changes Under SB 637

Coverage threshold: Five or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, or one or more domestic workers.
Protected characteristics: The law addresses race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions including lactation, age, military status, disability, and ethnic or national origin. For this section, age means at least 40 years old.
Complaint deadline: Virginia Code 2.2-3907(A) generally provides two years to file with the Office of Civil Rights, unless otherwise stated in the chapter. Track other administrative and court deadlines separately.

Why This Matters for Small Businesses

Small employers may already have obligations under other provisions or laws. As a practical response to the current coverage rules, review:

Written anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies
A complaint investigation process
Manager training on EEO obligations
Documentation practices that can withstand regulatory review

Non-Compete Agreement Restrictions

Virginia has significantly expanded its restrictions on non-compete agreements, building on its existing prohibition against non-competes for low-wage workers.

Healthcare Professionals: Restrictions and Exceptions

SB 128, enacted as Chapter 1114, extends noncompete protections to professionals licensed, registered, or certified by Virginia's Boards of Medicine, Nursing, Counseling, Optometry, Psychology, or Social Work. Importantly, its enactment clause states that it does not invalidate, alter, or otherwise affect agreements entered into or renewed before July 1, 2026.

The current statute retains exceptions and related permitted provisions. These include reasonable covenants in qualifying sales of a healthcare business, specified recruitment-cost repayment provisions, and narrowly defined nonsolicitation provisions. The latter cannot prevent specified communications to existing patients about a professional's continuing practice, new contact information, and the patient's right to choose a professional. Have counsel evaluate the particular agreement rather than describe the change as a complete ban on every restriction.

All Employees: Termination Without Cause

Under section 40.1-28.7:8(C), a covenant is unenforceable when an employer discharges an employee without providing severance benefits or other monetary payment, unless the discharge is for cause. That benefit or payment must have been disclosed when the covenant was executed. Disclosure at signing and provision of payment at discharge are different requirements.

Providing severance does not override other restrictions on an agreement. The statute also protects defined low-wage employees; that definition includes certain overtime-eligible employees regardless of their average weekly earnings, subject to its stated exclusions.

Penalties

The statute specifies a $10,000 civil penalty per violation of subsections B or C as determined by the Commissioner. It also provides private remedies, including voiding unlawful agreements and appropriate monetary relief, and separately requires employers to post the section or an approved summary.

Additional Protections Now in Effect

DOLI's July 1 summary identifies additional immigration-related retaliation penalties alongside existing protections for workers reporting wage theft or cooperating with investigations. Include these protections in manager training and complaint-escalation procedures.

Emergency Responder Protections

Virginia Code 40.1-27.5 protects qualifying volunteer emergency responders from retaliation solely because of covered absences while responding to an emergency alarm or during a state of emergency. Conditions include notice at least one hour before scheduled work and an incident report and certification upon return. Continued absences require daily notice, and the section excludes employees deemed essential by statute or contract.

The section does not require pay for missed time, but employees may use accrued or otherwise available paid leave instead of unpaid time. Review the statutory conditions before denying protection or requiring a particular leave arrangement.

Wage Theft Enforcement Framework

DOLI also highlights a uniform enforcement framework covering minimum wage, overtime, misclassification, prevailing wage, and wage-payment obligations. Payroll teams should review their procedures and escalation paths alongside the hiring and contract changes.

What Employers Should Do Now

The July 1 effective date has passed. Employers should take immediate action:

Audit active job postings for the required wage, salary, or good-faith range. Check both internal listings and third-party recruiting channels.
Review VHRA coverage using the current or preceding calendar year's working-day and calendar-week counts. Check the separate domestic-worker provision where relevant.
Update employee handbooks to reflect the new anti-discrimination protections, pay transparency obligations, and non-compete restrictions.
Inventory noncompete agreements by execution and renewal date, worker category, and proposed use. Check applicable exceptions and transition provisions before enforcement; do not assume all older healthcare agreements became void.
Train managers and recruiters on the salary history ban. Even a casual question about current pay during an interview could create liability.
Review agreement templates and separation procedures with counsel. Address the required disclosure of severance or other payment and the applicable restrictions. Update the required noncompete posting or approved summary.
Review complaint and protected-absence procedures. Assign owners for discrimination complaints, posting-correction notices, and qualifying emergency-responder absences.
Document compliance steps to demonstrate good faith in the event of an investigation or employee complaint.

Keep the Compliance Review Specific

For multi-state employers, keep a jurisdiction-specific record of posting rules, worker coverage, contract restrictions, and filing deadlines. A uniform recruiting template can help operations, but it should not erase differences in the laws that apply to each position or employee.

The most useful review is concrete: which posting needs correction, which agreement needs legal review, which manager needs training, and who owns the next action? Use the statutes linked below to check those decisions rather than relying on broad descriptions of a statewide reform package.

Virginia's July 2026 Employment Laws: An Employer Compliance Checklist