Oklahoma Voters Reject Measure to Raise State’s Minimum Wage

Oklahoma voters opted to reject a measure that would have gradually raised the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 by 2029.

More than 350,000 Oklahoma workers will not receive raises that would have totaled to over $783 million as a result of Question 832 failing, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Oklahomans last received a minimum wage increase when the federal floor was raised in 2009.

Oklahoma would have been at least the tenth state to pass a higher minimum wage via ballot measure in the past decade. GOP-led statehouses have pushed proposals to make it more difficult for the citizen-led ballot measures to win, in response to successes on questions like wage increases, paid sick leave mandates, and abortion rights.

The Oklahoma proposal allowed for an automatic boost to the minimum wage beyond $15 based on cost of living increases starting in 2030, and for the removal of current exemptions on who qualifies for the wage floor including part-time employees, farm and agricultural workers, and domestic service workers, among others.