OKPOLICY.ORG
The Oklahoma Board on Legislative Compensation is a constitutionally-created Board that has the exclusive authority to set compensation for members of the Oklahoma Legislature. The Board is made up of five members appointed by the Governor and two members appointed by both the House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem. No member of the Legislature may serve on the Board.
Every two years, the Board reviews and may vote to change the compensation paid to the members of the Legislature. Such a change automatically becomes effective on the fifteenth day following the succeeding general election.
In 2017, the Board voted to cut lawmakers’ salaries by 8.4 percent, from $38,400 to $35,021. In October 2019, the Board voted to raise lawmakers’ base salary from $35,021 to $47,500, a 35.6 percent increase. The stipend for the House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem rose to $17,932 from $16,300, while other legislative leaders saw their stipend rise to $12,300 from $11,200. In 2021, the Board voted to keep legislative salaries unchanged. In 2023, after a contentious meeting and numerous tied votes, the Board voted 5-3 to keep rank-and-file lawmaker salaries flat and raise stipends for Oklahoma’s legislative leaders by 5 percent.
Oklahoma ranked 17th highest in the nation in the base salaries of members of the Legislature who are not in leadership positions, according to a 2024 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
