A poverty-stricken state will not be raising the minimum wage for its workers.
“Louisiana’s poorest workers won’t get a minimum wage increase and employers won’t be forced to address the pay gap for women after lawmakers killed bills to address income disparities in the state with the highest poverty rate in the United States.
State senators on the Labor Committee voted to halt Democratic New Orleans Sen. Gary Carter’s bills to create a state minimum wage higher than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour and an equal pay measure for women. Both 5-2 votes fell along party lines with all five Republicans against the measures and two Democrats in favor.
Meanwhile, the full House advanced measures to reduce unemployment benefits (House Bill 119) and repeal a child labor law requiring employers to give a meal break to teenage workers (House bill 156).
Carter, whose Senate Bill 173 would have created a state minimumum wage at $10 per hour and gradually be raised to $14 per hour, argued that people ‘should not be living in poverty while working full time.’
But those who opposed the bill like Patrick Robinson with the Louisiana Association for Business and Industry testified that Carter’s bills would create hardships on businesses, trigger job cuts, increase costs to consumers and in the case of the equal pay measure create a hostile work environment.
‘It’s bad policy,’ Robinson said. ‘It would make our state less competitive. It would force businesses to cut work forces.’
But others who advocated for the minimum wage bill like Melissa Flournoy of 10,000 Women noted 34 other states have already established minimum wages higher than federal law, including northern neighbor Arkansas. Neighoring Texas and Mississippi don’t have state minimum wages.”
For the rest of the story, visit the Shreveport Times here.