BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) – In his State of the State address, Gov. John Bel Edwards proposed to raise Louisiana’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour by January 1, 2018.
“I am proposing a modest increase over 2 years in the state’s minimum wage so we can give folks a fair shot,” Gov. Edwards said.
Louisiana is one of a few states that doesn’t have its own minimum wage, but rather goes by whatever the federal standard is. Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Caroline also don’t have a state minimum wage law.
14 other states have state minimum wages that are the same as the federal standard.
The push to raise the lowest possible wage in Louisiana isn’t new. During the spring legislative session in 2014, several state senators and representatives submitted bills aiming at raising the minimum wage to $8.25, $9.50, $10, and $10.10 per hour.
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Gov. Edwards was very active on Twitter during Monday’s address. Below are some of his tweets in regards to Louisiana’s minimum wage:
He also spoke about the gender wage gap.