Economy

Poor better off in Oklahoma than in high-minimum-wage states

June 2, 2026

Ray Carter

As Oklahomans prepare to vote on State Question 832, which would raise Oklahoma’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour and then continue increasing the wage mandate at a rapid pace each year thereafter, a key question facing voters is whether low-income workers will be better off.

New data from finance site WalletHub answers the question: With a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the poorest people in Oklahoma are earning more—sometimes substantially more in percentage terms—than their counterparts in multiple states that have imposed higher wage mandates similar to SQ 832.

Experts say that difference is the product of the negative consequences of an excessively high wage mandate. If the cost of labor exceeds its value to employers, fewer jobs are created for entry-level workers, and the number of hours worked is reduced for those who do retain their jobs.

“Decades of research show that not only do wage hikes reduce overall employment, but they specifically hurt teen and entry-level jobs,” said Rebekah Paxton, research director at the Employment Policies Institute. “Take California: The state has some of the highest wage mandates in the country, and subsequently nearly double the rate of teen unemployment. Oklahoma’s proposed $15 wage mandate will bring these same consequences, cutting opportunities for our next generation of workers to gain valuable experience.”

Under SQ 832, the minimum wage in Oklahoma will more than double to $15 an hour by 2029 and then continue rising at a rapid pace every year thereafter based on increases in the cost of living in the nation’s largest urban centers, as measured by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. That would effectively tie Oklahoma’s wage mandate to the cost of living in places like New York City or San Francisco.

As a result, while SQ 832 would initially mandate that entry-level jobs pay $15 an hour in 2029, an analysis by The State Chamber of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Farm Bureau found SQ 832 would put Oklahoma’s minimum wage on a fast track to $35.61 per hour and continue rising thereafter.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, several states have already imposed minimum-wage mandates similar to the $15-an-hour rate initially imposed by SQ 832, including California (with a basic minimum rate of $16.90 per hour and $20 for fast-food workers), Oregon ($15.05 statewide and $16.30 in the Portland area), Massachusetts ( $15), New York ($16 statewide and $17 in the New York City area), Connecticut ($16.94) and Rhode Island ($16).

The minimum wage in all six of those states is at least 106 percent greater than the minimum wage in Oklahoma.

Yet, when WalletHub analysts calculated the average annual income of the bottom 20 percent of people in each state, adjusted for cost-of-living differences, Oklahoma outperformed all six of those high-minimum wage states.

According to WalletHub, the bottom 20 percent of people in Oklahoma have an average income of $15,482.

That may not sound like much, but it’s far better than what those same individuals would earn in many states with dramatically higher minimum wage mandates.

The average income of the bottom 20 percent in California was $14,662. In Oregon, those on the bottom rung had an income of $15,305. In Massachusetts, the same group had an income of just $14,440. In New York, the bottom 20 percent fared even worse with an average income of only $13,633. In Connecticut, the lowest tier of citizens had an average income of $15,095, while in Rhode Island, those individuals had an income of only $13,359.

The average income for the bottom 20 percent of earners is consistently greater in states with a minimum wage of $7.25 than in the aforementioned states with minimum-wage mandates of $15 an hour or more, based on WalletHub data.

In Utah, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and the bottom 20 percent have an average income of $23,531–which is 60 percent greater than the average income of the bottom 20 percent in California, despite California imposing a minimum wage of at least $16.90 per hour.

The same pattern is notable when comparing other states with a $7.25 an hour minimum wage to states with high wage mandates.

In Georgia, the minimum wage is $7.25, and the bottom 20 percent have an average income of $16,968. In Idaho, where the minimum wage is also $7.25, the average income of the bottom 20 percent is $19,578. The same pattern is apparent in other $7.25-an-hour states, including Indiana (average income of $17,275 for the bottom 20 percent), Iowa ($18,358), Kansas ($17,814), New Hampshire ($18,973), North Carolina ($16,532), North Dakota ($16,237), Ohio ($16,713), Pennsylvania ($16,288), Tennessee ($16,337), Texas ($17,461), Wisconsin ($18,615), and Wyoming ($16,453).

When the Employment Policies Institute commissioned a survey of 166 American economists in March and April, the survey found that 39 percent of surveyed economists think a $15 minimum wage will increase poverty rates, largely because it will effectively result in fewer job opportunities and fewer working hours for the lowest-earning tier of workers.

Once the minimum wage hits $20 hour, the survey found 57 percent of economists say it will increase poverty rates. At more than $20 per hour, 66 percent of economists think poverty rates will increase.