Louisiana pay transparency law: no private-employer rule, but state civil service jobs now list pay (2026)

Louisiana has no law that requires private employers to include a pay range in a job posting, as of November 2026, and none that requires a range on request or after an interview. The only Louisiana posting rule is public: Act 534 of 2026 (House Bill 202) requires the Department of State Civil Service to list the salary or salary range in every announcement for a vacant classified state job, effective August 1, 2026. The state's wage-discussion protection covers state workers only. Private employers answer instead to the equal pay rule in R.S. 23:332, federal law, and the laws of states such as Colorado and Washington when a Louisiana role reaches their residents.

Does Louisiana require salary ranges in job postings?

No, not for private employers. Title 23 of the Revised Statutes, the labor title, has no section on pay in job advertisements, and we found no 2025 or 2026 bill that would have added one for private employers. The one recent bill on pay in hiring, Senate Bill 205 of 2025, dealt with "wage history, wage disclosure, and retaliation." It was referred to the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, considered there on May 14, 2025, and never reported out. A New Orleans, Baton Rouge or Lafayette employer can post without a range as far as state law goes. The rest of Louisiana's hiring rules, from new hire reporting to posters, are in our guide to hiring employees in Louisiana.

What does Act 534 of 2026 require?

Act 534 enacts a new R.S. 42:375.1, in the civil service title. Its enrolled text has two parts:

• "The Department of State Civil Service shall list the salary or salary range within each job announcement for a vacant classified position."
• If an individual applies for a vacant classified position posted by the department and is rejected, or the vacancy has been filled, "the department shall notify the applicant of the rejection or that the vacancy has been filled, as applicable."

The bill, by Representative Dixon McMakin, passed the House 99 to 0 on March 31, 2026 and the Senate 37 to 0 on May 26, and was signed by the Governor on May 29, 2026. The House digest of the original bill shows it was first written for unclassified positions; the enacted version covers classified ones. It does not reach private employers, parishes or cities.

It still matters to private recruiters. State agencies compete for nurses, engineers, IT staff and accountants, and from August 2026 every classified opening they advertise shows its pay. A candidate weighing your unposted offer against a state job will know the state's number before your first call.

Can Louisiana employees discuss their pay?

Louisiana has a wage-discussion rule, but it is written for state government. R.S. 23:664(D) makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee "for inquiring about, disclosing, comparing, or otherwise discussing the employee's wages or the wages of any other employee." The section belongs to the Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act (Acts 2013, No. 374), and R.S. 23:663 defines "employer" for that act as "any department, office, division, agency, commission, board, committee or other organizational unit of the state."

Private-sector workers rely on federal law instead. The NLRB lists "talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits or other working conditions" as protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, which covers most private-sector employees. A handbook rule that bans pay talk is a risk in Louisiana even though no state statute forbids it.

What Louisiana pay law applies to private employers?

The Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law. R.S. 23:332(A)(3) makes it unlawful to "intentionally pay wages to an employee at a rate less than that of another employee of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs in which their performance requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility and which are performed under similar working conditions." Subsection (A)(1) separately bars discrimination in compensation because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, military status, or natural, protective or cultural hairstyle, and subsection (B) applies similar rules to employment agencies.

Coverage has a threshold. R.S. 23:302(2) says the chapter applies "only to an employer who employs twenty or more employees within this state for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year." Smaller employers still answer to the federal Equal Pay Act, which the EEOC says covers virtually all employers and requires equal pay for jobs that are "substantially equal."

Can New Orleans or another Louisiana city require pay ranges?

We found no parish or city ordinance that requires private employers to post pay ranges. State law limits local labor rules in one area: R.S. 23:642(B) says no local governmental subdivision may set a minimum wage rate or a mandatory minimum number of vacation or sick leave days for private employers. It says nothing about pay disclosure, so it neither allows nor blocks a range ordinance.

New Orleans does regulate the other side of the pay conversation. Its code bars city hiring staff from asking about salary history and requires businesses that sign covered city contracts to certify that they do not ask, screen on or rely on it. Both rules let an employer tell the applicant the salary or range. The detail, including which contracts are covered, is on our Louisiana salary history page.

Which other states' laws reach a Louisiana job posting?

Two of Louisiana's neighbors, Texas and Mississippi, have no state posting law either. The reach comes from remote and multistate roles:

Colorado's rule is the one Gulf Coast employers trip over: a single remote employee in Denver makes every later posting for a job that could be done from Colorado subject to it, even if the ad says Colorado residents will not be considered, according to the CDLE notice. California, Illinois and New York have their own tests for remote work; they are compared on pay transparency for remote jobs, and the Colorado and Washington details are in the Colorado guide and the Washington guide.

Do federal rules require pay ranges?

No. The federal contractor "pay transparency" rule, 41 CFR 60-1.35, protected employees who discussed pay; it never required ranges. It rested on Executive Order 11246, which Executive Order 14173 revoked on January 21, 2025, and the Department of Labor's final rule removed the order's regulations, including part 60-1, effective October 26, 2026 (91 FR 54444). Louisiana employers with federal contracts should not cite that rule in handbooks or notices after that date; see job posting requirements for federal contractors. The NLRA and the Equal Pay Act, above, still apply.

What should Louisiana recruiters and staffing agencies do?

1. Ask where the hire can live before you write the ad. "Baton Rouge office" and "remote, US" are different postings. If the client has a Colorado employee and the role can be done there, add the range, a benefits line and a close date.
2. Get the range at intake anyway. Candidates who also apply to state agencies will see civil service pay from August 2026. A range in hand lets you answer on the first call; see how to set salary ranges for job postings.
3. Agencies: put the client's range in writing. Louisiana's licensing rules for private employment services are in staffing agency licensing in Louisiana, and posting duties when you recruit for a client are in pay transparency for staffing agencies.
4. Check New Orleans contract clients. If the client holds a covered city contract, drop salary history questions for that search and ask about expectations.
5. Remove pay-secrecy rules from handbooks and offer letters, and write down the reason for each offer, which is what an R.S. 23:332 or Equal Pay Act claim will test.

Example wording for a candidate who asks (example figures): "The client has budgeted $68,000 to $78,000 for this role, depending on experience. What range are you looking for?" It gives the number and asks about expectations, not current pay; more phrasing is in salary expectation questions.

Louisiana at a glance

More Louisiana rules: ban the box in Louisiana, Louisiana background check laws and E-Verify in Louisiana. For every state's rule, see pay transparency laws by state.