Legislation that would raise Louisiana’s minimum wage to $10 per hour next year and up to $14 per hour in 2028 was approved by Senate Labor Committee in a 3-2 vote. Louisiana is one of 21 states that sets its minimum wage with the federal rate which is $7.25 an hour. Louisiana AFL-CIO Matt Wood says increasing the state minimum wage benefits working families.
“Approximately three years ago LSU did a survey and 81 percent of citizens – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents – support this legislation or raising the minimum wage,” Wood said.
Louisiana has the second-highest poverty rate in the country, with nearly 19 percent of the population impoverished, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. A proponent of raising the minimum wage, Louisiana Budget Project Director Jan Moeller says that doing so would make Louisiana more competitive with other states.
“The unemployment rate in Colorado where the minimum wage is $13.65 an hour is 2.8 percent. Everywhere that minimum wage has gone on the ballot it has passed. We’re counting on the legislature to do this for low-wage workers,” said Moeller.
A bill to increase Louisiana’s minimum wage was rejected by the House Labor Committee last week — a day after lawmakers advanced a bill that would double their own salaries. Lauren Hadden with the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, a lobbying group for big business interests in the state, argues the bill is unnecessary and would economically hurt small businesses.
“Minimum wage increases are a poor policy for enhancing the earning power of low wage workers and comes with bad economic side effects that are ultimately passed down to the employer and thereafter passed down to the consumers,” she argued.
SB149 will head to the Senate floor.
