OKLAHOMA CITY – Voters will eventually be able to have a voice regarding State Question 832, which addresses the state’s minimum wage, but it won’t be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
Proponents of the measure want to see the minimum wage gradually increase over the next several years from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour beginning in 2029. The initiative petition was filed in October 2023, and immediately met opposition. The Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and Oklahoma Farm Bureau filed a joint lawsuit to block the proposed question. The jointly filed formal protest challenged the legality of the proposition, which would ultimately double the state’s minimum wage and then raise it annually based on inflation. States can exceed the federal minimum wage standard of $7.25, but cannot go below that amount.
The legal challenge, which was filed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, argued that the proposed state question is unconstitutional under state law because it unlawfully delegates the legislature’s power to federal administrative officials, according to a press release from The State Chamber of Oklahoma.
After consideration, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in March 2024 that SQ 832 could move forward. Over the next several months 157,287 physical signatures were collected and certified, which made the initiative petition in compliance with state statutes. In August, after certifying the signatures, Oklahoma’s high court then allowed a 10-day protest period for objections to be filed.
The protest period has now been completed; however, Gov. Kevin Stitt has not issued a proclamation to put the question to the voters. Misha Mohr, public information officer at the Oklahoma State Election Board, said in a Sept. 6 article published in Tulsa World that Stitt would have needed to issue the proclamation by Aug. 26 for the state question to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
State law dictates that 70 days must pass from the time of the governor’s proclamation until an election can be held to determine the outcome of the proposal. For a ballot measure to pass in Oklahoma, only a simple majority of the votes cast is required.
“While on the surface, this may seem beneficial for lowwage workers,” said Chad Warmington, president and CEO of The State Chamber, in a press release dated Nov. 21, 2023, “the collaborative effort between The State Chamber of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Farm Bureau seeks to address the complexities and adverse effects on various sectors of the state’s economy.
“State Chamber member companies have no interest in artificially holding down wages, and in today’s labor market, they could not stay in business if they tried to do so. Let’s be clear, most of our members already pay well above the current minimum wage hourly rate to their non-salaried employees.
“What is a major concern to us is the automatic, open-ended increase being linked to a federal government produced index that is based upon cost-of-living rates in cities like New York or San Francisco. Those areas are not reflective of the actual cost of living in Oklahoma,” he said.