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OKC Pay Is Already Outpacing Minimum Wage · The 405 Payroll

• 0:13
  State Question 832 wants to raise Oklahoma minimum wage from seven twenty five an
• 0:19
  hour to ten fifty in 2026, and eventually fifteen dollars by 2029.
• 0:25
  But here is the thing that surprised me.
• 0:28
  Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that out of one point six nine million wage
• 0:33
  earners in Oklahoma, only five thousand people actually make seven twenty five.
• 0:39
  That is about three tenths of one percent.
• 0:43
  Wait, three tenths of a percent?
• 0:46
  So almost nobody in Oklahoma City is actually working for seven twenty five anymore?
• 0:51
  Virtually nobody.
• 0:53
  The real entry level floor in OKC right now, just from local hiring competition,
• 0:58
  has already jumped to sixteen to eighteen fifty an hour.
• 1:02
  So while politicians debate policy for 2029, the actual market moved on its own.
• 1:09
  See, that is what gets me.
• 1:11
  I, I, I remember back when I was doing early morning radio gigs,
• 1:15
  grinding through three different part time schedules just to pay rent,
• 1:19
  you know?
• 1:20
  You hear about some proposed wage hike years down the line,
• 1:24
  but if you are sitting at home right now trying to buy groceries this week,
• 1:29
  2029 might as well be a hundred years away.
• 1:32
  You need cash in your pocket today.
• 1:35
  And that is where the state agency data gets interesting.
• 1:39
  The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, OESC, runs direct walk in hiring events
• 1:46
  all month.
• 1:47
  For instance, every single Wednesday from ten in the morning to one in the
• 1:51
  afternoon, they run a Walmart OKC hiring event.
• 1:55
  You walk in, bypass the online application black hole entirely,
• 2:00
  do a face to face interview, and walk out with store logistics or stocking jobs
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  paying sixteen fifty to eighteen fifty an hour with zero experience required.
• 2:10
  Wait, so you do not even have to submit a resume online and wait three weeks to
• 2:16
  never hear back?
• 2:17
  Exactly.
• 2:19
  But there is a reason business leaders are still fixated on State Question 832.
• 2:25
  Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Senior Vice President Mike Jackson pointed out that
• 2:29
  the measure puts an automatic escalator into the state constitution.
• 2:34
  Starting in 2030, minimum wage would auto increase based on national inflation data,
• 2:40
  the CPI W, which reflects high cost areas like Los Angeles and New York,
• 2:45
  not just Oklahoma City.
• 2:47
  Okay, I get why businesses worry about national index formulas,
• 2:52
  but if you are a local renter, you are looking at your rent check going up right
• 2:57
  now.
• 2:58
  So if someone wants to go to one of those OESC Wednesday hiring events tomorrow,
• 3:04
  what is the play?
• 3:05
  How do they actually land the offer?
• 3:08
  You need a tight sixty second elevator pitch.
• 3:11
  Do not list every job you ever had.
• 3:14
  Focus on three things: reliability, shift availability, and your ability to lift or
• 3:20
  move inventory.
• 3:22
  Tell them directly, I am available for early mornings or weekend shifts,
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  I have reliable transportation, and I can start Monday.
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  If you hand them a clean one page resume and give that pitch,
• 3:33
  you can walk out with a firm job offer before lunch.
• 3:37
  Sixteen or eighteen an hour pays the immediate bills, sure.
• 3:42
  But how do you jump from that eighteen dollar floor up to twenty two or twenty eight
• 3:47
  dollars an hour so you are not living paycheck to paycheck forever?
• 3:51
  That next rung on the ladder is much closer than people realize.
• 3:56
  Over at Metro Tech Springlake Campus, located at 1900 Springlake Drive,
• 4:01
  they offer eight to twelve week certificate programs in fields like medical
• 4:05
  assisting and logistics management.
• 4:08
  And here is the key part: those short term programs are fully funded for eligible
• 4:13
  local residents through Central Oklahoma Workforce Innovation Board grants,
• 4:18
  or COWIB.
• 4:19
  It covers one hundred percent of out of pocket tuition.
• 4:22
  Wait, a hundred percent covered?
• 4:25
  So you get trained in two or three months, pay zero out of pocket,
• 4:29
  and bump your wage straight up to twenty five an hour?
• 4:32
  Precisely.
• 4:34
  Take a local OKC worker we read about recently.
• 4:37
  He was working retail shifts, took a quick logistics certification course at Metro
• 4:42
  Tech through COWIB funding, and transitioned into a certified inventory specialist
• 4:47
  position making twenty four dollars and fifty cents an hour.
• 4:51
  That extra six dollars an hour completely transformed his household budget.
• 4:56
  And while you are doing those few weeks of training, if you need quick weekend cash
• 5:01
  flow, you do not have to wait a month for a paycheck.
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  Working local assembly or delivery tasks around heavy shopping corridors like Penn
• 5:09
  Square Mall through platforms like TaskRabbit or Spark Delivery can bring in one
• 5:14
  hundred fifty to two hundred twenty dollars for a single Saturday shift.
• 5:19
  Right.
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  But earning more money is only half the equation.
• 5:23
  You also have to keep that cash from disappearing into surprise bills.
• 5:28
  The Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City, located at 319 Southwest 9th Street,
• 5:34
  provides LIHEAP utility assistance applications to cap seasonal electric spikes,
• 5:39
  along with completely free personal financial coaching.
• 5:43
  So if you are listening to this right now in Oklahoma City,
• 5:47
  do not just sit on the news.
• 5:49
  Before sunset today, go online and search for Central Oklahoma Workforce Innovation
• 5:55
  Board and register for a free career advisement slot.
• 5:58
  Get that grant, get certified, and claim that twenty five dollar an hour rung.
• 6:05
  Couldn't have said it better myself.
• 6:07
  Talk to you next time.
• 6:08
  Catch you later.