Louisiana House Kills Minimum Wage Increase, Pushes Own Raise

In a case of "its good for me, not good for we", Louisiana Lawmakers have made two salary votes in the same week. One to give a minimum wage increase, and one to decline a minimum wage increase. The raise they support is a 238% pay increase for themselves. While at the same time voting to not allow the public minimum wage to increase above $7.25 an hour.

This is a huge blow to the state of Louisiana. According to the United Way and their ALICE Report, 51% of all Louisiana households cannot afford basic expenses, which includes housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, cell phone access, and taxes. The United Way's term ALICE, stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. This is a way to examine people who are hardworking residents that work at low-paying jobs, have little or no savings, and are one emergency from falling into poverty. This is a group not covered by poverty rates, but are just one bad day away from falling below the poverty line.

That's 51% of the entire state, more than half, are unable to save money. They are either living off government assistance, or are making so little they can't afford their basic needs and a savings account.

This is what happens when a state's minimum wage remains at poverty levels for so long.

Looking at ALICE reports across the country, states with higher minimum wages have lower ALICE populations. Washington, Oregon, and Colorado all have some of the lowest ALICE populations. They all also have minimum wages around $15 an hour, showing a directly line between the minimum wage and poverty.

Now, many will automatically say "but how much is a Big Mac there"? Well, you can look that up too. Washington, who has the highest minimum wage out of all these states, has a $4.67 Big Mac...Louisiana's is $4.15. Just a .50 difference. However there might not be a direct correlation to the minimum wage and Big Macs. South Dakota has one of the cheapest average Big Mac costs in the country, $3.99...but their minimum wage is now over $10 an hour. So how can it be cheaper than Louisiana's Big Mac if their minimum wage is $3 an hour higher?

Its almost like the two aren't tied together as much as we're told.