Louisiana Overtime Pay Calculator

Louisiana is one of the few states with no state minimum wage law and no state overtime statute at all. There is no Louisiana equivalent to California's daily overtime or Kentucky's seventh-day rule — overtime rights for Louisiana workers come entirely from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. That means the baseline rule is simple: non-exempt employees must receive 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, and nothing more or less generous applies at the state level.

Because Louisiana has no state minimum wage, the federal $7.25/hr floor controls pay for nearly every hourly worker, and the overtime rate is calculated directly off that number for workers earning minimum wage: $10.88/hr rounded. Higher earners calculate overtime off their actual regular rate, which must include non-discretionary bonuses and commissions under FLSA rules, even though Louisiana adds no additional state-law requirements on top of that.

Louisiana's oil and gas, maritime, and hospitality industries create frequent overtime disputes because of complicated pay structures — day-rate pay for oilfield workers, for example, has been the subject of major federal litigation over whether day-rate employees are properly exempt. The FLSA's highly compensated employee exemption and the executive/administrative exemptions are litigated heavily in Louisiana's federal courts because so many workers are paid flat day rates rather than hourly wages.

Louisiana has no state labor agency that investigates overtime specifically, so nearly all overtime claims are handled by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division or filed as private lawsuits in Louisiana's federal district courts (Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts). The Louisiana Workforce Commission handles some wage payment issues, like final paycheck timing under the Louisiana Wage Payment Act (La. R.S. §23:631), but not overtime miscalculation claims themselves.

The federal statute of limitations gives workers two years to recover unpaid overtime, extended to three years for willful violations. Louisiana's federal courts, especially in the oil-patch region, have produced numerous class and collective actions over day-rate misclassification, so workers paid a flat daily rate regardless of hours should specifically ask whether that arrangement satisfies the FLSA's strict salary-basis test for exemption.

The single biggest trap in Louisiana is the day-rate misclassification issue: employers paying oilfield or offshore workers a flat amount per day, regardless of hours, and treating them as exempt from overtime. Federal courts have repeatedly ruled that day-rate pay, without a genuine weekly salary that meets the guaranteed-minimum salary test, does not satisfy the FLSA's exemption requirements — meaning many day-rate workers are actually owed substantial back overtime.

Because Louisiana adds no state-level protections beyond the federal floor, workers here get exactly what the FLSA requires: time-and-a-half after 40 hours, no daily overtime, and standard exemptions for executives, administrators, professionals, and outside salespeople. Agricultural and seafood-processing workers face additional federal carve-outs relevant to Louisiana's economy, and domestic workers may also fall under narrower coverage, so it's worth checking FLSA exemption criteria carefully rather than assuming any hourly job automatically qualifies for overtime.