The only thing on this year’s primary ballot where every Oklahoma voter gets a say is SQ 832.
If approved by voters – and let’s hope it is – the measure would gradually increase Oklahoma’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and, starting in 2030, connect future increases to inflation.
Here’s the gist…
This measure amends the Oklahoma Minimum Wage Act ("OMWA") under the Oklahoma Statutes to increase the state minimum wage. Employers must pay employees at least $9 per hour beginning in 2025, increasing $1.50 annually for a final rate of $15 per hour in 2029. Beginning in 2030 and continuing indefinitely, the minimum wage would automatically increase annually based on the increase in the cost of living, if any, as measured by the U.S. Department of Labor's Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers; the minimum wage increase would continue with any successor agency or index.
For the most part, support and opposition to the state question has fallen along the typical political divide, with right-wing lunatics, greedy Chamber of Commerce dicks, and other free-market-style Republicans opposing the proposal, while most Democrats, Independents, and other compassionate semi-sane people support it.
One of those compassionate semi-sane people is Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn.