LA MINIMUM WAGE BILL SB-49 – Efforts for raising Louisiana’s minimum wage got a boost yesterday as a Senate committee advanced a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. And it’s no secret that raising the wage limit has been on Governor John Bel Edwards’ priority list for this legislative session as he mentioned during his monthly radio program “Ask The Governor” yesterday.
"I'd like to make progress with raising the minimum wage," Edwards said. "It's been $7.25 an hour since 2009, we're one of the handful of states now without their own minimum wage and the overwhelming majority of the people in Louisiana agree that we should address the gender-gap and increase the minimum wage."
Previous efforts to raise the state minimum wage have failed and New Orleans Senator Troy Carter’s Senate Bill-49 is likely to face strong resistance in a Republican majority legislature this time as well. But Carter explained to the committee that lawmakers need to focus on the rising costs of living when considering what a living wage really means.
"We talk about the price of eggs, the price of milk, the price of rice, the price of childcare, the price of housing," Carter explained. "We know all those numbers have exponentially increased yet the minimum wage continues to be at a dismal $7.25 an hour."
Arguments against raising the state wage limit were presented before the Senate Committee on Labor yesterday – Jim Patterson of the Louisiana Association of Business cited studies that raising minimum wages actually reduces employment and forces businesses to turn to technology.
"When you make the costs of labor such that the economies of scale make it more attractive to move to robotics as a way to do the things that people are doing right now, that is going to necessarily happen," Patterson said.
The Senate Labor Committee approved SB-49 by a 3-to-2 vote. It now heads to the Senate for debate.
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