SQ 832 Won't Kill Business Tax Breaks—Here's Why

As Oklahomans prepare to vote on State Question 832 this June 16, one concern keeps surfacing in the business community: will raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour—with gradual increases to $15 by 2029—dry up the pool of workers eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit?

The short answer: not really. And here’s the nuance that matters.

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) incentivizes hiring from groups facing employment barriers, including SNAP recipients—who made up 64% of WOTC certifications between 2022 and 2024—along with veterans and people with felony records. But there’s a critical detail most people don’t realize: businesses only claim credits for first-year employees from these target groups. So unless companies hire fewer of these workers each year, the credit availability stays basically the same.

Now, the real test: would SQ 832 push SNAP recipients above the income threshold that makes them ineligible? The math suggests no. Seventy percent of SNAP recipients are full-time workers. If someone works 35 hours a week at $12 or $15 an hour, they’re still well below the current maximum gross monthly income limits for single-person and two-person households. In other words, a wage bump doesn’t automatically disqualify beneficiaries from assistance.

What does this mean for business? The pool of eligible hires likely stays open. What it means for workers is more complicated—a higher wage that keeps them on assistance suggests the system is calibrated to help working families, not penalize ambition or productivity.

That’s the conversation worth having as voting day approaches.