Pay Frequency and Wage-Payment Lag Requirements in Louisiana

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Every covered employee must be told the schedule

La. R.S. 23:633(A) requires disclosure at hire of the employee's wage, payment method, and payment frequency, along with later changes. If an employer subject to that subsection does not designate paydays, the statutory fallback is the 1st and 16th of each month, or as near to those dates as practicable.

The statute gives no advance-day count for a change. It requires notice of the change and separately requires the official timely-payment notice to be posted where other state or federal employee notices are posted.

The semimonthly mandate is coverage-limited

Section 23:633(B) requires at least two payments per calendar month, with paydays approximately two weeks apart, for public service corporations and for manufacturing, oil-boring, and mining employers that employ at least ten employees. The rule is not written as a universal semimonthly mandate for every Louisiana private employer.

For the listed manufacturing, oil-boring, and mining employers, clerical and sales workers are outside subsection B. Public service corporations do not get that clerical-or-sales exclusion. Subsection C separately excludes bona fide executive, administrative, supervisory, and professional employees, plus any other employee treated as exempt under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, from the entire section.

Covered payroll may lag one payroll period

For subsection B's semimonthly schedule, all amounts from a payroll period must be paid no later than the payday at the conclusion of the next payroll period. Frequency and lag therefore remain separate tests: the employer uses two paydays per month, but the wages from one period may be paid at the end of the following period.

What trips people up

The 1st-and-16th language is a fallback for failure to designate paydays. It is not the wording of subsection B's affirmative industry rule, which instead requires two paydays per calendar month approximately two weeks apart.

The employee exemption is also broader than the common executive-professional list. Section 23:633(C) additionally excludes any employee considered exempt under the FLSA, so coverage should be checked before applying either the disclosure/default or semimonthly provisions.

Common questions

Must every Louisiana employer pay semimonthly?

No. The mandatory twice-monthly schedule in § 23:633(B) is limited to public service corporations and the specified manufacturing, oil-boring, and mining employers with at least ten employees.

What happens if an employer does not designate paydays?

Section 23:633(A) uses the 1st and 16th of the month, or dates as near as practicable, as the fallback schedule.

Is a payday notice required at the workplace?

Yes. Subsection D requires the official timely-payment notice to be posted in the same location as other required state or federal employee notices.

Statutes and sources

• La. R.S. 23:633(A). Hire-time disclosures, later changes, and default paydays. Official text (accessed July 12, 2026).
• La. R.S. 23:633(B). Covered employers, semimonthly frequency, period lag, and clerical/sales exclusion. Official text (accessed July 12, 2026).
• La. R.S. 23:633(C)-(E). Exempt-worker exclusion, required poster, agency complaint route, and penalties. Official text (accessed July 12, 2026).