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Virginia workers are one step closer to a raise.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee voted 12-3 along party lines Monday to back Senate Bill 7 from Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, which calls for increasing the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Virginia’s $7.25 minimum wage — set in 2009 — is the same as the federal minimum.

The panel chose to move forward with different increments for the increase than Saslaw originally proposed. Instead of an increase to $10 per hour starting July 1 — and raising the minimum wage $1 per hour every year, eventually getting to $15 per hour effective July 1, 2025 — the committee opted to go with a more conservative implementation.

Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.75 per hour come Jan. 1, 2021, then $10.75 the next year and $11.75 a year later. At that point, employers would be able to count health insurance benefits toward what they are paying employees.

Marsden said the substitute would “transition Virginia much more logically.”

A majority of committee members agreed, backing the bill and sending it to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.