Current state law lets West Virginia youth begin working at age 14. Those teens may soon qualify for employment without a work permit, pending final approval from state officials.
West Virginia teens may soon qualify for employment without a work permit, pending final approval from the state legislature and governor.
Current state law allows West Virginia youth to begin working at age 14. But 14 and 15-year-olds must first obtain a permit from their school superintendent. These permits outline the nature of employment, plus verify a teen’s age, school enrollment status and parental consent to work.
Senate Bill 427 would eliminate the permitting process for West Virginia teens seeking jobs. Under the bill, 14 and 15-year-olds would instead only need a certificate confirming their age from the state commissioner of labor or another “authorized” official.
The West Virginia House of Delegates passed the bill Thursday without discussion by a vote of 91 to 9. Just one Democrat — Del. Hollis Lewis, D-Kanawha — voted in favor of the bill. Just one Republican — Del. Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette — voted against it.
The bill now crosses the rotunda for a final review from the West Virginia Senate, where it passed with no votes in opposition on Feb. 28. If they grant the bill approval, it will be sent to the governor’s desk, where it could be signed into law.
The House passed a nearly identical bill during last year’s legislative session, but it never passed the Senate. Proponents of the bill then said it removed an overly onerous step toward employment for teens, but opponents worried it could expose minors to risks in the workplace.
West Virginia lawmakers are moving forward in their effort to prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the state, but not without pushback from some members of the House Judiciary Committee.
West Virginia lawmakers are moving forward in their effort to prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the state. But the push against DEI met impassioned opposition from a vocal minority in the West Virginia House of Delegates this week.
Members of the House Judiciary Committee took up Senate Bill 474 Tuesday morning. The bill would sanction sweeping changes to hiring, college admissions and school instruction in West Virginia by restricting the role race, ethnicity and sex can play in each process.
Most notably, the bill would eliminate DEI offices and initiatives from state government, plus state-funded educational institutions like public colleges and universities.
The bill would also forbid hiring practices in the state government that aim “to promote diversity, equity and inclusion,” prohibit DEI training as a job requirement, limit how identity can be discussed in public schools and authorize school staff to refuse the use of pronouns that align with a student’s gender identity — among other provisions.
Republican lawmaker pushes back
DEI programs have been a partisan flashpoint in this year’s legislative session, generally receiving support from the state’s Republican supermajority and pushback from Democrats and some outside advocacy groups.
Support for the bill mostly fell along party lines in the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday. But Del. Bill Flanigan, R-Ohio, voiced disapproval rooted in his educational background studying race as a law student.
“This bill, I think, is horrible,” Flanigan said. “Flat out, one of the greatest things I was able to accomplish in law school was critical race theory as a class. I understand a lot of you haven’t had that class, and it’s hard to explain to somebody that hasn’t had that class until you can actually see, historically, some of the things have happened in our country.”
The bill purports to promote neutrality in state government by mandating “color blind and sex neutral” practices, and avoiding training or instruction centered around things like “implicit bias,” “structural racism,” “racial privilege,” “social justice” and “intersectionality.”
But Flanigan argued it was “incorrect” to allege that race and ethnicity can be easily overlooked, or “to say that we are color blind.”
“We can’t just randomly say we’re going to eliminate diversity equity inclusion, because somebody somewhere said, ‘Oh shoot, man, white people are losing right now,’” Flanigan said. “It’s not bringing us forward in the country. I really think it’s holding us up.”
No other Republican lawmakers provided comments on the bill during Tuesday’s meeting, nor during a House Education Committee meeting that reviewed the bill last week.
The elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs has been an early administrative priority for Gov. Patrick Morrisey. Senate Bill 474 is one of numerous bills introduced to the West Virginia Legislature by Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, on behalf of the governor.
“From day one, I said that we’re going to root out DEI and eradicate the woke virus from infecting our schools,” Morrisey said Feb. 12 during an address to state lawmakers at the start of this year’s legislative session.
The bill previously passed the state’s upper legislative chamber on March 26.
Del. Bill Flanigan, R-Ohio, addresses the House Judiciary Committee at a March 14 meeting.
Photo Credit: Perry Bennett/WV Legislative Photography
Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, attends a House Judiciary Committee meeting April 7.
Photo Credit: Perry Bennett/WV Legislative Photography
Democrats voice dissent
The House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic lawmakers echoed some of Flanigan’s concerns, and questioned the benefit Senate Bill 474 would bring to every-day West Virginians.
In a particularly forceful speech, Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, described the bill as emblematic of wider shortcomings Democrats see in this year’s legislative session.
“What are you all doing? What are you doing?” Fluharty said. “We’re checking some political boxes so people can win elections.”
Fluharty said DEI initiatives have far-reaching impacts than some lawmakers realize, citing a conversation with a resident who said DEI services at West Virginia University helped them access support for their attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, for the first time.
The bill would create some exceptions in its ban on DEI, protecting things like science and mathematics opportunities for women, single-sex athletic opportunities and programs for individuals with disabilities.
It would also reallocate higher education funds at public colleges and universities that would have gone toward DEI programs toward “merit scholarships for lower-income and middle-income students, first-generation college students or [reductions in] mandatory fees for resident students.”
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, argues the bill is inconsistent in which groups it protects.
“This bill picks and chooses what type of diversity, equity and inclusion shall be illegal, and what types of diversity equity inclusion are explicitly allowed,” Hansen said. “Just to be clear, I think all these types of diversity, equity and inclusion are beneficial.”
Despite garnering pushback on both sides of the aisle, members of the House Judiciary Committee ultimately leaned in the bill’s favor. The committee advanced the bill through a verbal majority vote, sending it to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.
Senate Bill 474 will have the opportunity to appear before the entire House for review and possible passage. If passed, the bill will be sent back to the West Virginia Senate for final approval, then to the governor’s desk.
The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill today that would allow data centers to establish microgrids — self-contained sites that generate their own power.
The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill today that would allow data centers to establish microgrids — self-contained sites that generate their own power.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey asked lawmakers to consider the policy last month.
Morrisey and other proponents of House Bill 2014 hope giving developers more control over their energy resources could attract more data centers – and new jobs – to the state. That includes Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison.
“We’re looking for an opportunity to compete in West Virginia through an ever-changing landscape of technological innovation,” Riley said on the House floor Tuesday.
Data centers use large amounts of energy, and advocates say microgrids ensure a site can meet its energy demands without straining the grid residents, schools and businesses depend on.
But Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, worries the bill would mean data centers wouldn’t have to help shoulder energy costs, which could leave electricity rates just as high for residents.
“Should we enact this legislation and attract these data centers, we are not going to attract ratepayers that are able to spread the fixed costs,” he said during floor discussion Tuesday. “Now I don’t know — if we were to have data centers come here without these microgrids — whether it would lower your power bills. But it doesn’t appear like, with the microgrid, that there’s any opportunity for that.”
Despite the delegate’s concerns, a majority of members of the House gave the bill its stamp of approval. House Bill 2014 passed by a vote of 88 to 12, and now heads to the West Virginia Senate for further review.
Picket signs and posters in hand, dozens gathered outside Charleston’s main post office last week to sound the alarm over looming postal job cuts and a move toward privatizing domestic mail services.
Picket signs and posters in hand, dozens gathered outside Charleston’s main post office last week to sound the alarm over looming postal job cuts and a move toward privatizing domestic mail services.
For years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been on the financial decline, capped with a $9.5 billion net loss in fiscal year 2024. President Donald Trump has floated plans to restructure the agency, and earlier this month USPS announced it would cut 10,000 jobs nationally through a voluntary early retirement program.
But Charleston-area postal unions worry that could bring risks to harder-to-reach rural communities, including much of West Virginia.
“Do you really think that they’re going to want to deliver one piece of mail to you all the way up a holler in West Virginia, versus concentrate on the inner city and the corporations here inside the city?” said Tim Holstein, vice president of Charleston’s American Postal Workers Union Local 133.
Holstein helped organize Thursday’s rally, part of a nationwide demonstration from postal unions to raise concerns over the looming changes to the nation’s public mail service.
“It’s just a no-win for union workers,” Holstein said at the rally. “It’s a no win for West Virginia, being a rural state.”
Rob Lloyd is a letter carrier who serves as secretary of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 531, based in Charleston.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Letter carrier Rob Lloyd — who also serves as secretary for the Charleston-area Branch 531 of the National Association of Letter Carriers — said he saw cutbacks on USPS coming, just not this fast.
“These people on Capitol Hill, they want to come after people that have good-paying jobs,” Lloyd said. “They attack labor unions. They do it all the time. You can kind of see the writing on the wall with the way things have happened. I wasn’t anticipating it being this swift and this scary.”
Like some others at the rally, Lloyd expressed particular concern over the newly launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by entrepreneur and advisor Elon Musk. DOGE has been at the forefront of federal workforce cuts nationwide since launching under the Trump administration.
“It’s really scary, because you know that he doesn’t have any clue what we do every day — the service we provide to the American people,” Lloyd said.
Concerns like these are shared by postal workers at all levels, including management. Outgoing Charleston Postmaster David Staton said reductions to USPS come at workers’ expense, and would be a detriment to the local community.
“We just don’t want to lose any jobs here in the state that are well-paying jobs,” Staton said. “We can’t afford to lose jobs here.”
Tim Powers has worked in the postal industry for nearly three decades, and today serves as president of the Charleston-area National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 305. But years ago he worked at a postal facility in Huntington that was shut down, forcing him to transfer to Charleston.
Picketers huddle outside a Charleston post office March 20 amid a rally against cuts to the federal workforce proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
That was a difficult experience Powers hopes unions can shield today’s workforce from.
“I do know what it’s like to have your life interrupted already by work. At this point, this is obviously at a significantly different level [than] that,” Powers said. “Over the last few years, we’ve had to fight and make the people aware more than ever of the danger that’s facing the postal service.”
The picket line is familiar territory for Charleston’s postal workers. In 2023, local postal unions began rallying against plans to consolidate a South Charleston mail processing center, the only full processing facility in the state.
The proposal would have transferred many services and positions at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center to a facility near Pittsburgh, but USPS ultimately changed course and left the facility’s operations in place.
If USPS is privatized or downsized, “the people are the ones that will lose their postal service and suffer the most,” Powers said. “And, of course, all of us that work here as well. Because it’ll be only the uber rich, only the billionaires [who] benefit from breaking up something and profiting off of it. Everybody else will have slower service and higher prices.”
While having to reassert his industry’s value may be tiring, Holstein said he and other union workers organize to support the postal service because of the resource it provides workers and residents alike.
“This is a kind of unique job, because not only am I doing it for my members,” Holstein said. “[But] I am also doing it for the public. We’re here to fight, and we fight to win.”
Dozens of union workers and community members gathered outside Charleston’s main post office to voice opposition to federal job cuts Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of union workers and community members gathered outside Charleston’s main post office to voice opposition to federal job cuts Thursday afternoon.
President Donald Trump has set reducing government spending as an early administrative priority for his second term, approving controversial cuts across the federal workforce. Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union Local 133, worries that could come with a move toward privatizing the nation’s postal service.
Tim Holstein serves as vice president of American Postal Workers Union Local 133, a chapter based in Charleston. Pictured in the center, he addresses attendees at a March 20 rally.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Privatization would really be detrimental to the rural West Virginians in the state,” Holstein told West Virginia Public Broadcasting at the Thursday rally. “Do you really think that they’re going to want to deliver one piece of mail to you all the way up in a holler in West Virginia, versus concentrate on the inner city and corporations here inside the city?”
Trump has previously floated ideas of privatizing or restructuring the United States Postal Service (USPS), citing long-running financial concerns. USPS has also agreed to cut 10,000 workers as part of the federal spending cuts being led by the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Holstein said privatization and job cuts would come at the expense of members of the public who rely on the postal service, especially those in harder-to-reach areas.
Jeannie Meyers and Alison Meyers, from left, are workers at the United States Postal Services mail processing center in South Charleston.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“It’s just a no-win for union workers,” Holstein said. “It’s a no-win for West Virginia, being a rural state.”
Charleston is one of more than 150 cities across the country to host a rally over privatization and workforce concerns. Holstein urged residents to reach out to their members of the United States Congress to discourage privatization, adding that union workers and their supporters will continue to hold rallies on the issue.
“We’re here to fight, and we fight to win,” Holstein said. “We’ll continue to do what we have to do to sustain the work here for our union members and to sustain the facility and the mail here in West Virginia.”
According to labor data released Monday, West Virginia lost roughly 3,800 non-farm positions on company payrolls between January 2024 and January 2025.
For West Virginia, the turn of the new year came with a decrease in the number of non-farm workers on company payrolls, according to preliminary data released Monday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Between January 2024 and January 2025, West Virginia’s overall payroll workforce outside the agriculture sector shrank by roughly 0.5 percent.
West Virginia was also one of just four states to see a notable one-month decrease in payroll jobs between December 2024 and January 2025. It was joined by Georgia, Missouri and Indiana.
During the one-month period marking the turn of a new year, West Virginia’s payroll workforce fell by roughly 0.6 percent, or roughly 4,000 positions.
The remaining 46 states, plus the District of Columbia, held steady over the same period, according to the bureau’s preliminary data.
