After years of decline and stagnation, the median wage in Louisiana rose 39 cents from 2012 to 2014 to $15.63 an hour, and Louisiana added 54,000 jobs over that time. Over that span, says a new report from the Louisiana Budget Project, more Louisianans had jobs than ever before and wages for women gained ground on their male counterparts.
“Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends,” reads the “State of Working Lousiana 2015” report. “The racial pay gap has grown substantially during the last two years. In 2014, the median wage for a black worker was $11.91 an hour, compared to $18.39 for white workers.”
And while the typical white worker received a 5.5% pay raise between 2012 and 2014, the average black worker took a pay cut of 2.2%, according to LBP, a left-leaning organization that monitors and reports on public policy effects on Louisiana’s low- to moderate-income families.
“More broadly, the gap between rich and poor in Louisiana continues to widen,” reads the report, which says workers in the 90th percentile of earnings saw their wages rise 12.5% over the past two years—nearly five times the rate of other workers in the state.
“This report has some encouraging news, but it also shows us how far we have to go to have an economy that works for everyone,” LBP Director Jan Moller says in a prepared statement accompanying the report. “As we take a weekend to honor workers in Louisiana, policymakers should remember that growing the middle class requires jobs that pay enough to support a family.”
—Steve Sanoski
