Louisiana is one of a small number of US states with no state minimum wage law on the books. That means most workers in the Pelican State depend entirely on the federal floor of $7.25 per hour — a rate set by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and unchanged since July 24, 2009. This calculator makes it easy to convert that hourly rate (or any wage above it) into the figures that matter for day-to-day budgeting: weekly gross pay, monthly gross pay and annual gross salary, with overtime baked in automatically the moment you work more than 40 hours.
How it works
Enter your hourly wage and your average hours per week. The calculator splits your hours into two buckets:
- Regular time — the first 40 hours at your straight-time rate.
- Overtime — any hours beyond 40, rated at 1.5 times your regular rate, as required by FLSA Section 7(a)(1).
Weekly gross = (regular hours x wage) + (overtime hours x wage x 1.5).
Monthly gross is derived as weekly x 52 / 12, capturing the exact calendar average across short and long months. Annual gross is weekly x 52.
All arithmetic runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Worked example
Suppose you work 45 hours per week at the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour — the rate that applies throughout Louisiana:
| Metric | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Regular pay | 40h x $7.25 | $290.00 |
| Overtime pay | 5h x $10.875 (1.5x) | $54.38 |
| Weekly gross | $290.00 + $54.38 | $344.38 |
| Monthly gross | $344.38 x 52 / 12 | $1,492.31 |
| Annual gross | $344.38 x 52 | $17,907.76 |
At a straight 40 hours per week with no overtime, the federal minimum yields a weekly gross of $290.00, a monthly gross of $1,256.67, and an annual gross of $15,080.00 — before any taxes, Social Security, Medicare or other withholdings.
The tool also shows a federal minimum comparison panel, so you can instantly see how much more (or less) per year your actual wage produces relative to the $7.25 floor.
Louisiana minimum wage in context
Louisiana’s reliance on the federal floor rather than its own statute means that workers have not seen a mandated pay increase since 2009. The state’s economy is heavily weighted toward industries such as hospitality, food service, oil-field support and retail — sectors where minimum-wage and near-minimum-wage employment is widespread. Because Louisiana also expressly prohibits local governments from setting higher minimum wages (a 2002 New Orleans ordinance was struck down in court on this basis), there is no patchwork of city-level rates to navigate: the federal $7.25 applies uniformly statewide.
Tipped workers are a special case that is particularly relevant in Louisiana, home to one of the strongest restaurant and entertainment cultures in the United States. Under federal rules, employers may pay tipped workers a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, provided that tips bring the effective hourly total to at least $7.25. If tips fall short in any workweek, the employer is legally obligated to make up the difference. Louisiana does not supplement or alter these federal tipped-wage rules.
Use the calculator to model any wage scenario — for instance, what a $10/hr, $12/hr or $15/hr wage would mean annually — so you can compare job offers, negotiate a pay rise, or build a household budget with confidence. Enter any hourly figure to instantly update every output line.