Oklahoma minimum wage petition supporters submit nearly double number of required signatures

OKLAHOMA CITY – Supporters of an effort to hike the minimum wage on Monday turned in nearly double the required number of signatures to get the issue on the ballot.

Supporters needed 92,263 signatures and turned in just shy of 180,000 to the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s office, said Amber England, a spokesperson for Raise the Wage Oklahoma.

Proposed State Question 832, if approved by voters, would increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2025 from the current $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum wage.

It calls for additional gradual increases until it reaches $15 an hour in 2029.

Additional increases would be tied to the cost of living measured by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index.

The proposal withstood a legal challenge from the State Chamber and Oklahoma Farm Bureau Legal Foundation.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court in March ruled the petition was constitutional. In April, it declined a request to revisit the issue.

It must undergo another protest period.

“The cost of gas, groceries and housing just keeps going up,” England said. “We think wages should go up as well.”

More than 320,000 Oklahomans will get a pay raise if the measure passes, England said.

“That means more money in their pockets that they can spend to buy gas, groceries and housing, and they will spend that money back into Oklahoma’s economy,” England said.

The State Chamber disagrees.

“This is a disastrous policy that will crush working families through price increases on the heels of record inflation,” said Ben Lepak, State Chamber Research Foundation executive director. “This ballot initiative is bad for workers, bad for business, and bad for Oklahoma, and we are confident the voters of the State of Oklahoma will concur with our position.”

The group looks forward to an educational  campaign about the initiative that will put corner stores and family farms out of business, he said.

England said the State Chamber’s rhetoric is meant to evoke fear and full of baseless claims.

“They are just out of touch with regular, everyday Oklahomans,” she said.

Measures to increase the minimum wage have been filed at the Oklahoma Legislature for a number of years, she said. Politicians have failed to act, England said.

She said lawmakers have also passed measures that make it difficult for Oklahomans to get issues on the ballot.

Supporters would like the issue to be on the November ballot, England said.

“We will be ready no matter what ballot they put us on,” she said.

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