Average Salary in Louisiana (LA)

Louisiana's $57,852 median household income is one of the lowest in the US, and the state has struggled with out-migration since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 reshaped New Orleans' population and workforce. The cost-of-living index of 91 pulls effective purchasing power back toward the middle, but the structural challenges are real — median wages have grown more slowly than most of the South over the past two decades. The economy is heavily weighted toward the oil-and-gas value chain (refining and petrochemicals along the Mississippi River corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans), healthcare (Ochsner Health is the largest private employer in the state), and tourism concentrated in New Orleans. The port of New Orleans and the adjacent Plaquemines and St. Bernard port terminals together form one of the largest port complexes in the Western Hemisphere. State income tax was reformed to a simpler structure ranging from 1.85% to 4.25%, and a 2024 overhaul is reducing it further toward a flat 3% in 2025. The $7.25/hour minimum wage remains at the federal floor, one of roughly twenty states still at that level. Property taxes are among the lowest in the country. Full breakdown follows.