text: Cities across Oklahoma have been barred from setting mandatory minimum wage, vacation or sick-day requirements under a bill signed into law this week by Gov. Mary Fallin. 
   
   Critics of the bill say it specifically targets Oklahoma City, where an initiative is underway to establish a citywide minimum wage higher than the current federal requirement of $7.25 an hour. Organizers have been gathering signatures on a petition to support raising the city's minimum $10.10 – a rate currently being advocated by President Barack Obama on the national level. 
   
   David Slain, the lawyer who wrote the petition, said he is disappointed that the state’s legislature "would vote in such a way to take the right of the people to decide minimum wage." He said the grass-roots effort would continue, with hopes of getting 4,000 signature by the end of April. A total of 80,000 are needed to bring the initiative to a statewide vote. 
   
   After the governor signed the law on Monday, her office released a statement that said raising the minimum wage is not an effective way to bring people out of poverty. 
   
   "Most minimum-wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs," Fallin said. "Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families." 
   
   Yet numerous studies have called this an untrue stereotype. It is a "common myth that very low-wage workers – workers who would see a raise if the minimum wage were increased – are mostly teenagers," according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute. 
   
   Nearly 90 percent of workers who would be impacted by an increase in the federal minimum wage are older than 20, while the average age is 35, the institute said. It added that more than a quarter have children to support and more than half work full time. 
   
   Supporters of the ban have also argued that it will help local businesses. Oklahoma state Rep. Randy Grau, R-Edmond, who carried the bill in the House, argued that "an artificial raise in the minimum wage could derail local economies in a matter of months." 
   
   Sen. Dan Newberry, R-Tulsa, the Senate co-author of the measure, said it provides a safer business environment that will allow Oklahoma to remain economically competitive and see continued job growth. ||||| Oklahoma’s cities and counties are banned from setting their own minimum wage standards under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin. 
   
   “Senate Bill 1023 protects our economy from bad public policy that would destroy Oklahoma jobs,” Fallin said in a prepared statement. “Mandating a minimum wage increase at the local level would drive businesses to other communities and states, and would raise prices for consumers.” 
   
   Fallin’s action appears to thwart efforts by an Oklahoma City group that had been circulating a petition calling for a local vote on whether to increase the city’s minimum wage from the national standard of $7.25 an hour up to $10.10 an hour. 
   
   Oklahoma City attorney David Slane, who serves as spokesman for the group circulating the petition, said his coalition is contemplating its next move. 
   
   “Of course we’re disappointed that the governor and the Republican Legislature stood in the way of the people having the right to vote on whether they want to raise minimum wage,” Slane said. “We’re looking now at the possibility of a constitutional challenge to the law that was signed because we think that it abrogates the people’s right to have an initiative petition. ... We’re going to explore all options, including the possibility of a statewide initiative petition.” 
   
   ‘Immoral’ 
   
   State Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, argued against the bill on the House floor, contending it was “immoral” to have a minimum wage so low that a person could work full time and still be classified as living in poverty. 
   
   Fallin, however, said that raising the minimum wage would hurt Oklahomans. 
   
   She cited a February report by the Congressional Budget Office that indicated raising the minimum wage nationally could lead to a loss of a half-million jobs in the United States. 
   
   “Most minimum wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs,” Fallin said. 
   
   “Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle class families. Mandating an increase in the minimum wage would require businesses to fire many of those part-time workers. It would create a hardship for small business owners, stifle job creation and increase costs for consumers. And it would do all of these things without even addressing the goal of reducing poverty.”
target: – An initiative to raise the minimum wage in Oklahoma City has been thwarted by a new law banning cities in the state from setting their own minimum wages or requirements for vacation days. A petition being circulated in the city called for raising the local minimum wage to $10.10—the level President Obama is pushing—from the current federal requirement of $7.25, the Oklahoman reports. The coalition behind the petition says it is considering a constitutional challenge to the new law. Gov. Mary Fallin, who signed the bill into law, rejected the argument that allowing cities to raise the minimum wage would bring people out of poverty, saying having different minimum wages across the state could scare off businesses and a higher minimum wage would cost jobs. "Most minimum wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs," she said. "Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families." Numerous studies, however, have found this to be untrue, Al Jazeera notes. A recent Economic Policy Institute report found that almost 90% of minimum wage workers are over 20, a quarter have children to support, and more than half work full time.