Minimum Wage Increase Not OK With Oklahoma: States of Play

June 17, 2026, 6:30 PM UTC

Oklahoma Minimum Wage Increase Rejected

Oklahoma voters rejected a proposal to raise the minimum wage gradually for more than 350,000 workers from $7.25 per hour to $15 by 2029, Claire Bernard reports.

Minimum-wage workers in the state last got a raise in 2009, when the federal rate was increased. If the referendum had been approved, Oklahoma would have been the 10th state in the past decade to use the ballot to raise the minimum wage, and workers’ raises would have totaled more than $783 million, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The proposal would have removed exemptions on ...

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