Tommy Salisbury’s 3,800-acre wheat, corn and cattle farm about 20 miles north of Tulsa relies on good weather, high commodity prices and the state’s $7.25 an hour minimum wage.
His 39 employees receive different hourly rates, but if the minimum wage were more than doubled — which a group in Oklahoma is seeking to do — Salisbury said it would force him to increase the pay for all his employees and significantly shrink his profit margin.
Oklahoma also offers a minimum wage exemption for some agricultural jobs, which the group seeking a wage increase wants to end.
“Every wage law on which I have based my business model, decisions and growth are at risk of being taken away by individuals who do not understand how or why these exemptions are needed,” Salisbury wrote in an affidavit to the Oklahoma Supreme Court as part of a challenge to the minimum wage increase effort. “This could potentially cost me my life’s work and my source of income, as well as the income of my employees.”
Raise the Wage Oklahoma, a political organization seeking a statewide vote to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2029, along with removing current exemptions for employees working on farms, ranches and in feed stores, filed paperwork last year to begin collecting the 92,263 signatures needed to put the question on a statewide ballot.
But before the petition process could begin, the State Chamber of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Farm Bureau filed a legal challenge in November, asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to declare the effort invalid.
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Photo Credit: north-dakota-farm-bureau
Categories: North Dakota, Crops, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat