The upper chamber is set to vote on a minimum wage increase today.
Raising wages was a campaign promise from Governor Edwards, and that’s why he’s backing the effort from New Orleans Senator Troy Carter to raise it to eight dollars 50 cents an hour by 2020.
A full time minimum wage worker makes 290 dollars a week, and Edwards says that’s just not enough these days to get by.
The bill is receiving opposition from the National Federation of Small Businesses. State Director Dawn Starns says “If the state mandates an increase in the cost of labor, then employers are going to have to raise prices or try to get by with fewer workers.” But UNO Business Professor Mark Rosa doesn’t see the buck twenty five increase being particularly harmful to the state economy.
18 states are set to raise wages this year
A bill to allow bulletproof backpacks on school campuses passed the Senate Judiciary C. West Monroe Senator Mike Walsworth says it’s unfortunate that a step like this is needed to protect school students, but he would rather take preventative action, than rely on school resource officers and other law enforcement…
Walsworth says parents and their children are rightly concerned for their safety. He says it’s up to legislators to do their part to make sure measures are in place, such as allowing bulletproof backpacks…
But Opponents on the bill spoke out, including East Baton Rouge Parish Attorney Dadrius Lanus, representing school students. He says the bill does not make common sense and it will put out the wrong message…