Cherokee Nation To Increase Minimum Wage To $15 By 2025

The Cherokee Nation is increasing the minimum wage for its employees. This comes as the cost of living in the United States is at its highest level in more than 30 years, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Beginning in 2025, Cherokee Nation employees will get $15/hour. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Junior signed the executive order Monday afternoon in Tahlequah.

This is now the second time in two years the Cherokee Nation is increasing pay; it went up to $11/hour from $9.50/hour back in 2019. Meanwhile, the minimum wage, both federally and in Oklahoma, is $7.25/hour.

"We know raising the minimum wage can have a boosting effect in the economy. We can't wait around for the United States. If we waited around for the U.S. and Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation would be way behind," said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Junior.

The Cherokee Nation said its employees will get a $1 raise every year, over the next 4 years, until the minimum wage reaches $15. Employees will get their first raise by October 2022.

"It made sense to us to plan ahead as to how we can get to $15/hour. That's going to take a period of time. We're a government that's growing, but we've got to steadily and responsibly grow," added Hoskin Junior.

The Cherokee Nation also signed a second executive order Monday that will look at pay structure.

The tribe wants to make sure men and women are being paid equally and that everyone gets compensated fairly. To do that, they'll conduct a year-long study which should conclude at the start of the next fiscal year (October 1, 2022).

Hoskin Junior said, "If we're going to maintain our status as the employer of choice, we have to make sure that we take care of our workforce, that we continually work to improve how we take care of them because they continually lookout for the interests of the Cherokee people."

The tribe will also use funds to create a support program for workers currently making minimum wage to "give them tools to succeed in the future." Hoskin Junior added the money will help those workers boost their earning power starting early next year and give them early education tools to have more economic success in the future.