Director Gatz told the Oklahoma Transportation Commission that the department will implement a market pay adjustment beginning in January 2026 aimed at reducing recruitment and retention problems.

The shift follows ODOT’s biennial market study, which the director said the agency has conducted since 2005. Gatz said turnover, which the department has kept below the state average in recent years, has begun to climb and is approaching about 13 percent. To address that, ODOT plans a staggered market adjustment that Gatz said ranges “somewhere just over 2% and ranges all the way up to in excess of 20% in certain job classes.”

The department estimated the cost for the remainder of state fiscal year 2026 at $4,400,000 and said the full-year cost will be larger. Gatz said the adjustments will affect most ODOT employees and will target job classes with the largest market gaps, particularly engineering positions and heavy equipment operators, where turnover among entry-level HEO‑1 workers approaches 30 percent.

Gatz said ODOT will draw on payroll efficiencies and other departmental savings to cover the adjustment and that leaders will try to protect the capital program. He described the market study methodology as drawing from regional peer states, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services’ annual report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and industry surveys, and noted some increases are larger for professional job classes than for others.

Commissioners asked whether the market adjustments cover administrative and executive staff; Gatz replied that the review examines “the entirety of the organization” and said the adjustments are intended to apply across levels where market data show gaps. The commission did not take a vote on the market study itself; the discussion occurred in the director’s informational report.