Minimum wage in Oklahoma

The current minimum wage in Oklahoma is $5.15 per hour that employers with annual gross sales over $100,000 pay for ten or more full time employees. All other employers are allowed to pay a minimum wage of $2.00 per hour. In addition, the Oklahoma state minimum wage law does not contain current dollar minimums but adopts the Federal minimum wage rate by reference.

In 2006 a coalition group called “Raise Oklahoma” started a grass-roots effort to put on the November ballot an issue to raise the minimum wage. The proposed state question, SQ 732, called for raising Oklahoma’s minimum wage by $1.00 per year for the next two years, bringing the state’s minimum wage up to $7.15 per hour by 2008. The increase was also tied to the Consumer Price Index that would annually adjust the minimum wage with the cost of living. Unfortuantely, this group did not get enough of registered voters to sign the petition and failed to get this ballot issue for the November elections.

Also this year legislation to increase the present minimum wage was introduced in the Oklahoma Senate. Senate Joint Resolution 49 proposed to send to the voters a ballot raising the minimum wage in Oklahoma by fifty cents a year for five years beginning January 1, 2007. This resolution also stated that if the federal minimum wage is raised anytime between January 2007 and January 2011 then Oklahoma’s minimum wage would be either the amount voters approved through this resolution or the federal wage plus fifty cents, whichever is higher. This legislation also failed to pass.

Just like other states throughout the country, Oklahoma has been working on raising the minimum wage for their workers. Studies show that more than 40,000 Oklahoma workers are paid either below or at the federal minimum wage. Large percentages are adults and single mothers struggling to support a family. Coalition groups in Oklahoma are still planning to continue to work on getting the minimum wage increased in their state.