Louisiana wage, overtime and meal-break law in 2026

Louisiana is one of a handful of US states that deliberately defers to the federal floor rather than setting its own rate. A 2024 bill (House Bill 353) proposing a $12 minimum by 2027 failed in committee in April 2026. No state minimum wage legislation has passed since.

Louisiana law also prohibits parishes and municipalities from enacting a higher local minimum wage, a 1997 preemption statute that makes New Orleans and Baton Rouge subject to the same $7.25 floor as every other jurisdiction in the state. No parish-level minimum wage exists.

Tipped employees may be paid a cash wage of $2.13 per hour under the federal FLSA tip credit, provided tips bring total hourly earnings to at least $7.25. If they don't, you make up the difference.

Your named country specialist at Teamed handles minimum-wage compliance as part of the payroll run. Statutory floor, tip credit mechanics, and reporting pass through at cost on every invoice: itemised, auditable, no markup on the statutory layer.

No daily overtime trigger exists under Louisiana law. An employee can work 12 hours in one day and 0 hours the next without any daily OT obligation, as long as total hours in the workweek stay at or below 40. The FLSA's 40-hour weekly threshold is the only calculation you run.

FLSA exemptions still apply: executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees who meet the salary-level test ($684/week as of 2024) are exempt from the OT premium. Teamed's onboarding classifies each role correctly at the point of hire, so the FLSA exemption call is made once, recorded, and auditable.

Get the exemption wrong and you're running back OT calculations across potentially three years of pay. That's the exposure; the fix is a clean classification call at hire.

Louisiana is one of several US states that chose not to legislate break requirements for adult workers. The federal FLSA also does not mandate meal or rest breaks for adults; it only requires that short breaks (typically under 20 minutes) be paid if an employer provides them voluntarily.

The minor break rule under R.S. 23:213 is the one requirement that catches employers off guard when they hire workers under 18. If you've got any minors on staff in Louisiana, that 30-minute break after five hours is non-negotiable.

Teamed tracks age-related compliance as part of onboarding. If a hire is under 18, the one platform flags the minor break requirement and builds it into the employment terms.

The 15-day rule applies from the date of discharge. It's one of the shorter windows among US states. A company that terminates on a Friday, with a biweekly payroll cycle, still has 15 calendar days regardless of when the next payday falls.

Louisiana's final-paycheck law covers wages, commissions, and other compensation due under the employment contract. As of 1st August 2025, profits-interest distributions from entities taxed as federal partnerships are excluded from the 15-day requirement under R.S. 23:631(F), but standard wages and commissions remain subject to it.

The penalty provision under LA R.S. 23:632 is worth quoting directly: an employer who fails to comply faces penalty wages equal to 90 days of the employee's daily rate of pay, or full wages from the date of demand until the employer pays, whichever is less. That's not a warning. On a $60,000/year salary, 90 days of wages is $14,795 in penalty on top of the wages owed.

A good-faith dispute exception exists: if a court finds the employer's dispute over the amount owed was in good faith, liability reduces to the disputed amount plus judicial interest from the date the suit was filed. Disputes that aren't in good faith get the full R.S. 23:632 treatment.

The DOL's Wage and Hour Division handles FLSA complaints in Louisiana, including minimum wage violations, overtime shortfalls, and tip credit disputes. Employees can also file private civil actions under the FLSA, and a successful claimant recovers back wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.

For final-paycheck violations under R.S. 23:631 and R.S. 23:632, enforcement is through private lawsuit in Louisiana state court. The Louisiana Workforce Commission does not mediate final-paycheck disputes directly. The penalty wages of up to 90 days plus attorney's fees in some circumstances make Louisiana's final-paycheck statute one of the more consequential in the South.

Teamed's in-house legal specialist monitors payroll compliance in real time. If a Louisiana employee's departure triggers the final-paycheck clock, the platform tracks the 15-day window and alerts your account lead before the deadline.

Louisiana has a reputation as an employer-friendly state, and on the wage and hour side that's accurate. No state minimum wage. No daily overtime. No adult break mandate. No parish or city payroll tax. New employers start at a 1.16% SUTA rate on a $7,000 wage base ($81.20 maximum per employee per year in state UI contributions).

The 2024 income tax reform also makes Louisiana a lower-cost state than its reputation suggests. The flat 3% income tax rate under Act 11 (effective 1st January 2025) replaced a graduated system that topped at 4.25%. Employer withholding follows LDR Form R-1306 tables and the LaTAP portal.

One operational nuance: Louisiana requires new hire reporting within 20 days of hire through the Louisiana DCFS portal (la-newhire.com). Miss this and you're out of compliance with Act 97 of the 1997 Louisiana Legislative Session, regardless of what the employee's onboarding looked like federally.