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Fabio 5a13be122b Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-06 17:28:36 -04:00

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Bill

Employment; covenants not to compete, definition of low-wage employees, civil penalty.

Covenants not to compete; low-wage employees; civil penalty. Prohibits an employer from entering into, enforcing, or threatening to enforce a covenant not to compete between the employer and a low-wage employee. The employer is subject to a civil penalty of $10,000 per violation. The bill defines "low-wage employee" as either (i) an employee, intern, student, apprentice, or trainee whose average weekly earnings are less than the average weekly wage of the Commonwealth or who is employed without pay or (ii) an independent contractor who is compensated for his services at an hourly rate that is less than the median hourly wage for the Commonwealth for all occupations as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. The bill defines "covenant not to compete" as an agreement that restrains, prohibits, or otherwise restricts an individual's ability to compete with his former employer. The bill allows any low-wage employee subject to such a covenant not to compete to bring a civil action against an employer and seek appropriate relief, including enjoining the conduct of any person or employer, ordering payment of liquidated damages, and awarding lost compensation, damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill provides that if the court finds a violation of the bill's provisions, the plaintiff is entitled to recover reasonable costs, including reasonable fees for expert witnesses, and attorney fees from the former employer or other person who attempts to enforce a covenant not to compete against such plaintiff. The bill requires all employers to post in the workplace a notice of the prohibition or a summary of the notice approved by the Department of Labor and Industry and provides that an employer is subject to a warning for a first offense and to a civil penalty for a subsequent offense for failure to post such notice or approved summary. The provisions of the bill are applicable to covenants not to compete entered into on or after July 1, 2020. This bill is identical to HB 330.

us/states/va

Virginia General Assembly

2020

SB 480

Virginia SB 480 (2020)

bill

enacted

Bill DeSteph

2020-01-07

2020-04-09

openstates

ocd-bill/7b65ac9d-26dc-40b0-9d23-94a93492814b

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB480

df0beb3347ec1a238ebcb358c2560901ca5c1fd168e182b5b7990096f0690400

2026-07-01

https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump

2026-07-06

reported

legislation

bill

us-va

Virginia SB 480 (2020) — Employment; covenants not to compete, definition of low-wage employees, civil penalty.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0949) (committee substitute) — source
Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB480ER) (committee substitute) — source
Engrossed by Senate as amended SB480E (committee substitute) — source
Impact statement from DPB (SB480) (committee substitute) — source
Impact statement from DPB (SB480H1) (committee substitute) — source
Impact statement from DPB (SB480S1) (committee substitute) — source

Votes

Reported from Labor and Commerce with substitute (19-Y 0-N) — 19–0 (pass) · lower
VOTE: Passage (80-Y 19-N) — 79–19 (pass) · lower
Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — 40–0 (pass) · upper
Engrossment reconsidered by Senate (39-Y 0-N) — 39–0 (pass) · upper
Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 1-N) — 39–1 (pass) · upper
Passed Senate (34-Y 6-N) — 34–6 (pass) · upper
Reported from Commerce and Labor (14-Y 1-N) — 14–1 (pass) · upper
VOTE: Agree To (74-Y 20-N) — 73–20 (pass) · lower
Senate acceded to request (40-Y 0-N) — 40–0 (pass) · upper
House substitute rejected by Senate (0-Y 40-N) — 0–40 (fail) · upper
Conference report agreed to by Senate (34-Y 6-N) — 34–6 (pass) · upper

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

2020-01-07 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20103725D introduction
2020-01-07 Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor referral-committee
2020-01-23 Impact statement from DPB (SB480)
2020-01-27 Reported from Commerce and Labor (14-Y 1-N) committee-passage
2020-01-29 Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
2020-01-30 Read second time and engrossed reading-2
2020-01-31 Passed by for the day
2020-02-03 Engrossment reconsidered by Senate (39-Y 0-N)
2020-02-03 Reading of amendment waived
2020-02-03 Amendment by Senator Petersen agreed to amendment-passage
2020-02-03 Engrossed by Senate as amended SB480E
2020-02-03 Printed as engrossed 20103725D-E
2020-02-03 Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 1-N)
2020-02-03 Passed Senate (34-Y 6-N) passage
2020-02-13 Placed on Calendar
2020-02-13 Read first time reading-1
2020-02-13 Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce referral-committee
2020-02-18 Reported from Labor and Commerce with substitute (19-Y 0-N) committee-passage
2020-02-18 Committee substitute printed 20108594D-H1 substitution
2020-02-20 Passed by for the day
2020-02-21 Passed by for the day
2020-02-24 Impact statement from DPB (SB480H1)
2020-02-24 Read third time reading-3
2020-02-24 Committee substitute agreed to 20108594D-H1
2020-02-24 Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB480H1
2020-02-24 Passed House with substitute (80-Y 19-N) passage
2020-02-24 VOTE: Passage (80-Y 19-N)
2020-02-26 House substitute rejected by Senate (0-Y 40-N)
2020-02-27 House insisted on substitute
2020-02-27 House requested conference committee
2020-03-02 Senate acceded to request (40-Y 0-N)
2020-03-02 Conferees appointed by Senate
2020-03-03 Conferees appointed by House
2020-03-04 Amended by conference committee
2020-03-04 Conference substitute printed 20109575D-S1
2020-03-04 Conference report agreed to by House (74-Y 20-N)
2020-03-04 VOTE: Agree To (74-Y 20-N)
2020-03-05 Impact statement from DPB (SB480S1)
2020-03-07 Conference report agreed to by Senate (34-Y 6-N)
2020-03-18 Enrolled
2020-03-18 Signed by President
2020-03-19 Signed by Speaker
2020-03-20 Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 20, 2020
2020-03-20 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
2020-03-23 Impact statement from DPB (SB480ER)
2020-04-09 Approved by Governor-Chapter 949 (effective 7/1/20) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/7b65ac9d-26dc-40b0-9d23-94a93492814b. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).

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