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Louisiana Minimum Wage Remains Stagnant, While Neighboring States Vote For Increases

Gov. John Bel Edwards and Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, urge an expansion of the Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act at a Senate hearing on March 15, 2018.
SARAH GAMARD/LSU MANSHIP SCHOOL NEWS SERVICE
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, urge an expansion of the Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act at a Senate hearing on March 15, 2018.

Louisiana is one of five states in the nation that doesn’t have a minimum wage law of its own. Instead, it sets the same rate as the federal government, $7.25 an hour. That rate hasn’t changed since 2009. And while democratic Governor John Bel Edwards has urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to set and raise the minimum wage in Louisiana, all efforts have failed. 

Earlier this month, voters in neighboring, Republican-led states of Arkansas and Missouri approved increases to their minimum wage rates.

On this week's Capitol Access, Jamie Carson with the Louisiana Budget Project, a non-profit that studies budget policy in the state, talks about the minimum wage in Louisiana, and whether or not the decisions in Arkansas and Missouri could impact efforts to increase the rate in this state.

Click here for more information on state minimum wage laws across the country. 

Copyright 2021 WRKF. To see more, visit WRKF.

Wallis Watkins is a Baton Rouge native. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy from Louisiana State University in 2013. Soon after, she joined WRKF as an intern and is now reporting on health and health policy for Louisiana's Prescription.

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