Groceries, healthcare, housing—the cost of everything goes up. To keep up financially and avoid falling behind, families and workers also need incomes to rise. But Louisiana’s minimum wage has remained frozen for over 15 years. Louisiana is one of only five states without a state minimum wage, meaning many workers in our state are stuck at the $7.25 federal minimum wage that has not been raised since 2009.

And Louisiana families pay the price for lagging wages that fail to keep up with rising costs. That’s why over half of Louisianans struggle to meet their basic needs. But Louisiana’s workers don’t have to be stuck at the bottom. Even raising the minimum wage by a few dollars would mean a pay bump for hundreds of thousands of Louisiana workers.