And those pay scales explained with the preface, "We are not oil and we are not aircraft industries...." Pay scales were mediocre at best. Don't know anyone there for the last 5 years or so - have there been increases in the pay scales??
Back in '96-'97 minimum wag was $4.75 and then went to $5.15 in '97. The starting wages at Whirlpool IIRC was $8.00 or slightly better for general wages plus benefits. At the time you could get call center jobs at $10.00 but they may not include any benefits, so Whirlpool was very enticing. You could get hired on and have a potential future, and possibly getting paid twice what you were making, with some real benefits.
If you are making $7.45 with no bennies right now, $10.00 to $12.00 at Macy's looks good (are they offering any bennies?) it's a start to improve pay for someone, and may offer them a growth potential.
As has been discussed elsewhere, cities and county's, and states offering incentives to get new businesses is the new norm, for good or bad. If OK wants to keep and attract high tech, higher paying jobs, they need to make incentives, and God forbid, change some things about the state to make it more attractive. (Give Smoot a job writing parking tickets and change some of the liquor laws)