“It’s really affecting every aspect of life,” said Ty Todd, a former president of OPEA and a communications manager for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation in Buffalo.

Todd said state worker pay was several years behind inflation when they received their last raise two years ago.

“Now, fuel prices are really hitting hard. We’ve had insurance increases that’s really impacted state employees,” Todd said. “It would be nice if we could see pay raises that just keep us up with the rate of inflation.”

The Governor’s Task Force on State Employee Compensation is studying how to comprehensively compare state employee pay to market employee salaries. Officials say the actuarial study will be more extensive than the OPM report and will try to quantify all benefits received by state employees when compared with market employees.

But Sterling Zearley, executive director of the OPEA, said state workers have become frustrated with state officials who study their compensation instead of raising it. Zearley said OPEA members will be politically active this election season.

“We’re going to be very involved in election campaigns this year,” Zearley said. State workers are conducting interviews with candidates and OPEA will make candidate endorsements this year based on lawmakers’ voting records and the opinions of OPEA members.

“We know who has been helpful and who has not,” Zearley said.