Louisiana Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour DivisionLouisiana has no state minimum wage law, so the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour applies to most Louisiana workers. This Louisiana minimum wage calculator turns that hourly rate into the numbers that actually matter to you: weekly, monthly and yearly pay. At $7.25 an hour, someone working a full 40-hour week earns about $290.00 before tax, or roughly $15,080.00 across a full year. Enter your own hours per week and weeks worked to see your gross pay, and edit the rate if you are paid above the minimum. The minimum wage is a floor, not a ceiling: employers can pay more, and some cities in Louisiana set their own higher local minimums. Tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage as long as tips bring them up to the minimum; see the tipped calculator for that. The figure here is the state rate for 2026, sourced directly from the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division; the pay calculation is simply hours times the rate.
Louisiana's 2026 minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Full time (40 hrs/week) that is about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax.
How Louisiana minimum wage pay is calculated
weekly pay = hourly rate x hours per week
annual pay = hourly rate x hours per week x weeks per year
overtime = hourly rate x 1.5 (hours over 40 in a week, FLSA)
These are gross figures before federal and Louisiana income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Your take-home pay is lower; see our Louisiana paycheck calculator for the after-tax amount.
Why Louisiana defaults to the federal $7.25 floor
Louisiana sits in a small group of five states, along with Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, that never passed a minimum wage law of their own. The practical result is that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act floor of $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009, governs almost every hourly job in the state. That rate has now held for more than 16 years, which quietly erodes buying power each year because there is no cost-of-living adjustment built in.
A detail that catches employers off guard is preemption. State law bars any parish or city, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, from setting its own higher local minimum, so there is no city rate to look up. The number on this page is the number statewide.
Tipped work is where mistakes cluster. Louisiana follows the federal model: an employer may pay a cash wage of $2.13 an hour and claim up to a $5.12 tip credit, but only if the worker's tips actually lift them to $7.25. If a slow shift leaves the total short, the employer must make up the gap that week. The $2.13 figure is a starting point, not a lawful take-home floor, and treating it as the full wage is the most common payroll error we see in states that follow the federal minimum.
Louisiana minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the minimum wage in Louisiana in 2026?
Louisiana has no state minimum wage law, so the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour applies to most Louisiana workers. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker (40 hours a week) earns about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax. This rate took effect on July 24, 2009.
How much is full-time minimum wage in Louisiana per year?
At Louisiana's $7.25 minimum wage, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours, which comes to about $15,080.00 a year ($1,256.67 a month) in gross pay before tax and deductions. Part-time hours scale down from there; use the calculator to enter your own hours.
Is Louisiana's minimum wage going up?
Louisiana does not automatically index its minimum wage to inflation, so it changes only when the law changes. The figure here is the 2026 rate verified with the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Louisiana?
Louisiana lets employers pay tipped workers a lower cash wage of $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 of tips toward the minimum (a "tip credit"). If cash wage plus tips does not reach $7.25 an hour, the employer must make up the difference. See our Louisiana tipped minimum wage calculator for the full breakdown.
Is Louisiana's minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage?
No. The rate that applies in Louisiana is the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Where a state and the federal rate differ, workers are entitled to the higher of the two.
Official sources
- Louisiana 2026 minimum wage rate: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, as at July 11, 2026.
- Federal minimum wage ($7.25) and overtime rules: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 11 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not legal or financial advice. Louisiana has no state minimum wage law and defaults to the federal FLSA rate of $7.25. Local minimums: Louisiana law preempts local minimum wage ordinances.