Louisiana requires final pay by the next regular payday or within 15 days of the separation, whichever is sooner.
Law: La. R.S. 23:631, 23:632 · Rules checked October 2026
The same earlier-of deadline — next payday or 15 days — applies when you quit. The free wage claim for either path goes to the Louisiana Workforce Commission — the walkthrough in the kit lists its window and what to attach.
Louisiana's penalty wages are the steepest in the country on paper: if wages are still unpaid after a written demand, penalty wages at your daily rate can run up to 90 days (§23:632). A genuine dispute over the amount owed is the employer's defense, so read the number as the statutory ceiling.
Your state treats earned vacation as wages: if you had accrued, unused vacation when you left, it must be paid in your final check. Forfeiture clauses ("use it or lose it" at separation) are void here.
The free claim goes to Louisiana Workforce Commission. It costs nothing and you do not need a lawyer; what you need is the amount computed, the demand already sent where your state rewards one, and the file assembled.
Filing window: set by state law and shorter than people expect — file within weeks, not months.
Compute your Louisiana verdict — free
General information from the published statute — not legal advice. Penalty figures elsewhere on this site are statutory maximums, with willfulness conditions named where the statute names them.