Prior to July, 2021, Virginia had no overtime law on its books. That meant that employers in Virginia compensated their employees using the standards set in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Since the enactment of the Virginia Overtime Wage Act, this is still largely the case. The VAOWA references several provisions of the FLSA, but in some key areas it differs in a way that is stricter than the FLSA. Employers should always follow the statute that compensates employees more for their hours, whether it’s a federal or state statute (like how the state minimum wage of Virginia, $11.00 as of the writing of this article, takes precedence over the federal minimum wage of $7.25). I