Louisiana minimum wage in 2026 (and 2027)

No state law, so the FLSA decides

Most employers juggle a state wage law and the federal one. A Louisiana employer deals with only the federal law. DOL's entry for Louisiana reads, in effect: no state minimum wage law, and FLSA employers owe $7.25. Five states are in that position; the other four are Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.

That makes FLSA coverage the whole question, and the answer is usually yes. The federal law reaches any business doing $500,000 or more a year, and every hospital, nursing home, school and public agency regardless of revenue. Individual employees are covered too when their daily work involves interstate commerce, for instance a dispatcher calling Texas, a bookkeeper processing out-of-state sales, or a fabricator whose parts ship to Mississippi (DOL Fact Sheet #14). A tiny business with no cross-border contact might sit outside both laws, but that is a thin and risky position to rely on.

Tipped jobs, youth and overtime in Louisiana

For the French Quarter and every other Louisiana dining room, the federal tipped formula governs. Pay $2.13 an hour, count no more than $5.12 of tips toward the minimum, and use it only for staff who customarily pull in over $30 in monthly tips. Whenever a week's tips leave a server below $7.25 an hour, the employer pays the difference that payday.

Federal rules let you start employees younger than 20 at $4.25 for 90 days. Overtime kicks in past 40 weekly hours at 1.5 times pay, so $10.875 at the minimum, and Louisiana layers no daily overtime rule on top. Salaried roles may still be owed overtime; check the exempt vs non-exempt guide.

What $7.25 pays in a Louisiana year

Louisiana's $7.25 floor equals $290.00 for 40 hours, $15,080.00 over a 2,080-hour year, and $1,256.67 per month. A tipped server's guaranteed cash wage for that year is just $4,430.40, with tips covering the remainder.

Employer taxes on a minimum wage Louisiana worker

Louisiana taxes only the first $7,000 of each worker's pay for unemployment in 2026, per DOL, down from $7,700 according to Bloomberg Tax. A brand-new account is assigned its industry's average rate, which Bloomberg Tax, a secondary source reporting 2026 rates, puts at no lower than 1%. We could not confirm that floor on a Louisiana Workforce Commission page. Using that floor:

With such a small base, every additional point of assigned rate costs only $70 per worker per year. See how Louisiana ranks on the state unemployment tax table.

Getting Louisiana payroll right

The state checklist is short: a withholding account with the Louisiana Department of Revenue, an unemployment account with the Louisiana Workforce Commission, and new hire reports. Links are on our Louisiana payroll tax guide. For software, Gusto publishes $49 a month and $6 per employee for its Simple tier (October 16, 2026 check), and our payroll software scores cover other choices. Around the region, Texas matches $7.25 by statute, Mississippi has no wage law either, and Arkansas requires $11.00 at 4 or more employees.