BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Lawmakers made a push to increase the state minimum wage with four different bills Thursday, but all were denied in committee. Businesses said the cost would be detrimental – advocates said people can’t afford to live.
Louisiana has never had its own set minimum wage. It uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which was last raised in 2009. Tipped workers make $2.13 an hour, which has not been raised since 1991. Rep. C. Denise Marcelle’s bill would have raised the minimum wage to $12 over the course of two years. She said workers are not able to support their families and themselves with the current cost of living.
“If you really value them, you would pay them. I would not have had to hear that lady say that she has to work a full day just to pay for gas to get here,” Rep. Marcelle said.
Some representatives and business groups said people should be trying to work up towards higher-paying jobs over time.
“There needs to be a toolbox for the workers. There is one, it’s our education and training programs,” said Jim Patterson, vice president of government relations for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI).
LABI also said the increase in wages will be a major cost to small businesses – one they can’t afford. They said with bringing up the minimum wage, it would force them to raise the wages of everyone else to remain competitive and retain workers.
“We would immediately take four to five basis points off the bottom line in an...
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