Disparity in Oklahoma minimum wage rates prompts calls for statewide increase

OKLAHOMA CITY – A growing disparity between what the state requires its employees to make and what it requires everyone else to pay is an indication that it’s time to increase the state’s minimum wage rate, advocates said.

Starting July 1, all state employees must make at least $12.41 an hour, or an annual salary of $25,820. The increase was mandated because of a 2009 law that requires state employees to have “an annual salary equal to the amount established in the Federal Poverty Guidel...