Housing access would increase if Oklahoma’s minimum wage grew to $15 an hour, report finds 

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tens of thousands of more Oklahomans would be able to afford housing if the state’s minimum wage were raised to $15 an hour, according to a new report.

Up to 40,000 households would no longer pay 30% or more on rent with the increased minimum wage, according to the report issued by Scioto Analysis, which has offices around the country and provides analysis of issues to public policymakers.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines anyone who is spending more than 30% of their income on housing as “housing cost burdened,” which is high, said Rob Moore, principal with Scioto Analysis. 

“If you are spending over 50% of your income on housing, you are considered very housing cost burdened,” Moore said.

If the minimum wage was increased, up to 32,000 Oklahoma households would no longer spend more than half of their income on rent, according to the report.

Lower-income Oklahomans spend a larger proportion of their income on housing, according to the report.

The report was commissioned by This Land Research and Communications, a project of the Oklahoma Donor Alliance. The Donor Alliance is a nonprofit that funds strategic research projects.

The groups are not affiliated with Raise the Wage Oklahoma, which collected enough signatures to get a state question seeking to increase the minimum wage on the June 16, 2026 ballot.

If approved by voters, State Question 832 would gradually increase the $7.25 an hour minimum wage to $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 report said increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would result in as many as 550 fewer Oklahomans experiencing homelessness. Chronic homelessness would drop by 150 people a year, according to the report.

Oklahoma has seen a dramatic increase in homelessness, doubling in the past three years, according to the report.

More than 64% of chronically homeless Oklahomans live in Tulsa or Oklahoma City, according to the report.