Raising the minimum wage means more Oklahomans could afford housing - Oklahoma Policy Institute

Raising the minimum wage means more Oklahomans could afford housing - Oklahoma Policy Institute

It’s been 16 years since Congress raised the minimum wage. Since then, rents have risen by 60 percent. The predictable result of this mismatch is drastic increases in eviction filings and homelessness. [See Oklahoma specific homeless data] Low-wage workers – not just minimum wage workers – struggle to afford housing. Since federal and state lawmakers have failed to ensure the minimum wage keeps pace with the actual cost of living, Oklahomans hav…