The increasing cost of living and the fact a vast majority of Louisiana residents favor a higher minimum wage justify an increase in the existing $7.25 minimum, but it isn’t likely to happen. State legislators have rejected higher minimum wage bills over the last four years, and a newly elected and more conservative Republican lawmaking branch is expected to do it again.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has said he will push for a higher minimum wage and equal pay for women, another proposal that has gone nowhere. Jan Moller, executive director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates for low-income Louisianans, is more optimistic.

“I don’t want to predict what the new group of legislators are going to do,” he told the Louisiana Radio Network. “I have heard that they are more conservative maybe, but they are also brand new and, hopefully, they are going to take a fresh look at this issue.”

The minimum wage was first introduced in 1938 at 25 cents per hour. It has been increased 22 times since then. A 2019 CNBC survey found that 60 percent of those contacted favored raising the minimum to $15 per hour.

The $7.25 federal minimum wage hasn’t been increased since 2009, and it amounts to only $15,080 annually. Although 24 states have increased their minimum wages for 2020, 21 others, including Louisiana, are still at $7.25.

Arkansas has increased its minimum wage from $9.25 per hour to $10 per hour, but Mississippi and Texas, two other neighboring states, are still at $7.25. The 2020 minimum is $15 per hour in the District of Columbia, $13.50 in Washington state, $13 in California, $12.75 in Massachusetts and $12 in Arizona, Colorado and Maine.

Edwards wants to increase the minimum to $9 per hour, which Moller said is a start, but still below an adequate living wage for a full-time worker. Moller said it should be $10 or $12, but he’d like to see it go to $15.

Supporters of raising the minimum wage say it improves worker productivity, reduces employee turnover and absenteeism and boosts the economy because it generates increased consumer demand.

Business interests continue to be the major opponents of raising the minimum wage. They insist it kills jobs and hurts a company’s bottom line. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the National Federation of Independent Businesses lobbied hard to elect more conservative and business-friendly legislators.

Although Louisiana isn’t likely to increase the minimum wage anytime soon, debate over the issue is still expected to be an annual affair.