Employment and labor laws in Louisiana [2025]

Employment laws safeguard employees from discriminatory practices and hazardous work environments. Employers who breach these regulations can face severe repercussions. While federal laws generally protect employees in the United States and set a baseline for employment laws, legal obligations can differ between states—and even cities—and are subject to change.

Compared to other parts of the United States, Louisiana has fairly relaxed employment laws. For example, the state of Louisiana has loose regulations around minimum wages as well as obligations for employers to provide breaks for their workers. However, there are still many worker protections that employers must adhere to. Whether you’re hiring in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, learn the ins and outs of Louisiana employment law with this in-depth guide. 

Want help compliantly hiring in Louisiana? Rippling’s Professional Employer Organization service can manage local tax registration and administration, eliminating the uncertainty around complying with Louisiana laws—and empowering you to grow your business with confidence.

Employment vs. labor law: What’s the difference?

While the terms "employment law" and "labor law" are frequently interchanged and have some similarities, they are distinct in the eyes of the law. Most crucially, the parties involved in each type of law are different. Employment law generally covers matters between an employer and an individual. Labor law comes into play when the focus shifts to interactions between an employer and a collective entity, such as a union.

Here’s a glimpse of what employment and labor laws each encompass:

• Employment law covers hours, overtime, wages, hiring practices, workplace discrimination, and retaliation.

• Labor law is a subset of employment law. This category includes laws around union membership, union dues, and collective bargaining agreements.

Wages and hours in Louisiana

If you hire in the state of Louisiana, you’ll want to make sure that you’re complying with wage laws and that you’re only scheduling your workers for the allowed amount of time. 

Minimum wage in Louisiana

Minimum wage is one area where Louisiana is more lenient than many other states. There is no statewide minimum wage law in Louisiana, meaning they adhere to the federal minimum wage. As of 2025, that rate is $7.25 per hour for covered, nonexempt workers. Employees who receive tips must get $2.13/hour, with their total pay plus tips reaching $7.25/hour. Employers must make up the difference for those who don’t earn out on tips. 

Want to make sure you’re setting hourly wages appropriately? Rippling automatically flags any minimum wage violations based on the state where your employees are located.

Overtime pay in Louisiana

Overtime work happens—sometimes your organization is under time pressure for a deadline or a worker needs to step up to cover for someone who’s away on leave. In Louisiana, overtime law follows the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and goes into effect once employees have worked more than 40 hours in a week. 

Employees must be paid one and a half times their regular pay for overtime hours. According to federal overtime laws, which apply in Louisiana, there are some exemptions to overtime:

• Executive or administrative employees that make $684/week

• Outside sales employees

• “Professional employees,” including teachers or artists

• Highly compensated employees making more than $107,432/year

Rippling can help you adhere to overtime laws, no matter where your employee is based. Rippling’s payroll software automatically applies the correct overtime pay rates when employees track more than eight hours of work per day.

Pay transparency in Louisiana

Pay transparency is a trending topic in the United States, with more states and cities adopting regulations about revealing pay during the hiring process or otherwise publishing pay rates. In Louisiana, there are no state or local laws around employers providing pay transparency. However, workers are legally allowed to share pay information with each other. Under the Equal Pay for Women Act, employees are allowed to ask about, disclose, compare, and discuss their wages with coworkers. Employers are not allowed to retaliate, discriminate, or otherwise penalize them for doing so. 

Want help with setting pay rates? With Rippling, you can set compensation bands. During onboarding, Rippling flags out-of-band adjustments so you can approve special cases and block others.

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Breaks and rest periods in Louisiana

In Louisiana, mandated break periods vary depending on who you are employing. Minor employees (those under 18 years of age) are required to have a 30-minute break period after working for five hours. Otherwise, there are no mandatory meal breaks or other break periods for adult employees during the workday. Should an employer decide to give breaks as part of their company policy, they must pay employees for breaks of 20 minutes or less. If the employer provides a meal period, they don’t need to pay their employees for that time, as long as employees are free to do what they want.

Leaves of absence in Louisiana

Employees may need to take time off to care for loved ones, navigate illness, or deal with other personal matters. Here are the types of leave required by Louisiana law:

• Pregnancy leave. For employers who have 25+ employees in Louisiana, they must allow their employees to take up to 6 weeks for pregnancy and childbirth for normal pregnancies without complications.

• Medical and family leave. Per the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees get 12 weeks of unpaid absence to care for a sick family member or deal with their own medical conditions. Employees must have worked for their employer for at least a year to be eligible.

• Jury duty leave. Employees can be paid for up to a day of work for the time they spend on jury duty, and they cannot be penalized by taking away time from any vacation or sick leave.

• Emergency response leave is permitted if an employee needs to respond to an emergency as a first responder. This includes firefighters, law enforcement, and medical personnel.

• Bone marrow leave. Employers who have 20+ employees are required to allow 40 hours of paid leave for employees to donate bone marrow.

• Pregnancy disability leave. See more below.

• Military leave. Under federal law and Louisiana’s Military Service Relief Act, employees are entitled to return to their jobs within one year, and the employer cannot discharge them during that time without just cause. During their military leave, the employee is entitled to collect vacation accrual and other benefits normally afforded by the employer.

Louisiana law does not require:

• Vacation leave (paid or unpaid)

• Holiday leave

• Voting leave

• Bereavement leave

• Sick leave. See more below.

While employers aren’t required to offer these types of leave, they may choose to do so under their own workplace policy.

Pregnancy disability leave in Louisiana

If pregnancies result in complications or disability, then an employer must grant an additional pregnancy disability leave of up to four months.

Paid sick leave in Louisiana

Louisiana employment law does not compel employers to provide sick leave, whether it’s paid or unpaid. However, if an employer permits sick leave and lays out such a policy in their employee handbook, then the employee must adhere to those rules. 

Whether you’re operating in Louisiana or elsewhere, Rippling lets you customize and automate your leave policy. Plus, you have full visibility into how employees are utilizing their leave.

Automate and customize your leave policy

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Workplace safety in Louisiana

Unlike 28 other states, Louisiana does not have its own occupational health and safety program, known as a "state plan.” Therefore, Louisiana workplace safety laws fall under those laid out at a federal level under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA’s Baton Rouge office oversees Louisiana workers and employers. 

Per OSHA regulations, employers are required to provide employees with a safe workplace free of known hazards. Some requirements include, but are not limited to:

• Informing workers about any workplace hazards (This can be done through training and color-coded systems and must be in a language that employees understand.)

• Prominently posting an “OSHA Job Safety and Health Protection: It's the Law” poster, which is available for free on OSHA’s website

• Keeping records of any workplace illnesses or injuries, and informing OSHA of any workplace fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of eyes 

• Not retaliating against any workers for reporting workplace illnesses or injuries, or otherwise complying with OSHA standards

• Providing any necessary protective equipment free of charge to their workers

Note that the OSHA Act doesn’t cover self-employed workers (contractors), direct family members of farm workers, or any workplace hazards that are regulated by other federal agencies (such as the Department of Energy).

In Louisiana, employers must carry workers’ compensation insurance, which covers mental and physical injuries from workplace accidents and occupational diseases. Most Louisiana workers are covered from day one of employment, including full-time, part-time, seasonal, or minor workers. Some independent contractors may even be considered employees for the purposes of workers’ comp, though domestic employees, real estate brokers, certain nonprofit employees, public officials, and volunteer workers are typically not entitled to these benefits. 

Rippling’s PEO can provide you with a pay-as-you-go workers’ comp plan. No upfront payment is required for the whole year, allowing you to scale your business seamlessly in Louisiana and elsewhere in the US. 

Discrimination and harassment laws in Louisiana

Louisiana offers specific protections against employment discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Under the Louisiana state legislature, employers are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of:

• Race

• Sex

• Age (for those aged 40+)

• Color

• Religion

• National origin

• Natural, cultural, or protective hairstyle (which is protected under the Louisiana Crown Act)

• Disability (or perceived disability)

• Military status (for veterans who must take time away to receive benefits or attend medical appointments)

• Pregnancy (for employers with 25+ employees in Louisiana)

• Genetic information

• Sexual orientation

• Political views or political affiliations

Discrimination isn’t allowed during the hiring process, while managing an employee, or while determining their pay rate. What’s more, discrimination laws mandate that employees of different sexes must be paid equally for equal work.

Louisiana does not mandate sexual harassment training. See more about which states do, including specific requirements.

If you have employees in multiple states, Rippling’s Learning Management System includes core sexual harassment training courses to ensure each employee meets their state’s requirements. Remember: Employers aren’t just responsible for their own discrimination and harassment. They may be liable for the actions of their employees, and violations may result in penalties, fines, and even legal action.

Unions in Louisiana

A labor union is a collective of employees who advocate for equitable working conditions, which may include improved wages, increased time off, and better employee benefits. According to the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employees are entitled to:

• Unionize or join a union for the purpose of negotiating with their employer

• Talk to colleagues regarding their employment specifics

• Engage in collective bargaining by nominating employee representatives to establish contractual work terms

• Initiate actions to enhance workplace conditions, including lodging complaints with their employer, the government, or seeking assistance from a union

• Participate in strikes and pickets, depending on the reasoning 

• Opt out of a union

According to the NLRA, unions cannot coerce employees with threats of job loss or take punitive measures against them for not endorsing the union. Similarly, employers are prohibited from impeding, discouraging, bribing, terminating, demoting, or making threats against employees who join or express interest in joining a union.

In 2024, 3.9% of the Louisiana workforce was unionized, for a total of 69,000 union members statewide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is below the United States average. 

FAQs about Louisiana labor and employment laws