Louisiana: Pay Frequency and Wage-Payment Lag Requirements

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).