labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Most Louisiana employers were affected on July 24, 2009 when the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour.

There is no Louisiana minimum wage. Louisiana is one of 5 US states that have no minimum wage. The others are Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. In these states, an employer who is not covered by the federal minimum wage law can legally pay just $1.00 per hour – if they can find an employee willing to work for that amount.

The federal minimum wage law is the FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938. The FLSA applies to businesses with annual revenue of $500,000 or more. It also applies to individual employees who are engaged in interstate commerce as a portion of their work duties. Examples of interstate commerce would be a retail clerk who accepts credit cards as payment, a secretary who uses the internet or email, or a switchboard operator who answers out-of-state phone calls.

Every Louisiana employer should (more…)