Topic: Economic Opportunity

The EITC has been an unfortunate victim of Oklahoma’s budget gridlock

By: Gene Perry
November 14, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In 2016, Oklahoma lawmakers were struggling to pass a state budget amid a massive revenue shortfall. Sound familiar? One of the measures taken by lawmakers in that year to fill their shortfall was making Oklahoma’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)… Read more [More...]

‘Neglected Oklahoma’ book release parties / Save the date for budget summit

By: Gene Perry
October 20, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
We’re excited to announce the release of a new book from Oklahoma Policy Institute! Neglected Oklahoma: Voices from the Margins is a collection of nineteen essays written for the OK Policy Blog over four years by Oklahoma City writer and social… Read more [More...]

New protections for payday loan borrowers are coming (if Congress will stay out of the way)

By: Courtney Cullison
October 19, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
After years of research and public consultation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this month issued a final rule to create new protections for payday loan borrowers. These new protections are a necessary and positive first step in eliminating the debt… Read more [More...]

Occupational licensing is a growing barrier to Oklahomans who seek a decent job

By: Courtney Cullison
October 9, 2017 // Updated: March 21, 2019
Let’s say you want to change careers. Or maybe you’re a recent graduate thinking about what you’d like to do as you enter the workforce. Like an increasing number of American workers, you might find that stiff requirements to get… Read more [More...]

New Census data shows Oklahoma fell further behind the U.S. on poverty and uninsured rate in 2016

By: Gene Perry
September 14, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
New Census data shows the percentage of families living in poverty in Oklahoma increased in 2016, even as the national poverty rate declined to its lowest point since 2008. In 2016, almost one out of six Oklahomans (16.3 percent) were making… Read more [More...]

In dispute between Republican leaders over DHS funding, here are the facts

By: Gene Perry
July 19, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
It’s been an eventful week for the Oklahoma Legislature, especially considering they are not even in session. The week began with House Speaker Charles McCall and Majority Leader Mike Sanders blasting the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for making cuts… Read more [More...]

Minimum wage isn’t what it used to be – it’s worse

By: Courtney Cullison
July 13, 2017 // Updated: June 14, 2019
The federal minimum wage was established in 1938 at 25¢ an hour (about $4.26 in today’s dollars). Since then it’s been adjusted 29 times to keep up with inflation and rising living standards. The most recent change was in 2009,… Read more [More...]

Health care is increasingly central to Oklahoma’s economy

By: Gene Perry
July 5, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
If you ask a person on the street what Oklahoma’s economy is known for, two industries likely to come to mind are oil and gas drilling and agriculture. Yet when we look at the jobs Oklahomans are working in today,… Read more [More...]

Care for seniors, people with disabilities at risk as DHS grapples with budget shortfall

By: Carly Putnam
June 20, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Most Americans (nearly 90 percent of people over at 65) want to stay in their homes as long as possible as they get older. For people with disabilities, staying in one’s home represents decades of hard-fought court battles against forced… Read more [More...]

Highs and lows of Oklahoma’s 2017 legislative session (Part 2)

By: Gene Perry
June 13, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Yesterday we shared a recap of what happened this legislative session with the state budget, taxes, and education policies. Today in part two, we’ll look at outcomes related to health care, criminal justice, and economic opportunity. We began the session… Read more [More...]