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About 1,800 Cherokee Nation employees will get a pay raise this year.

Principal Chief-elect Chuck Hoskin Jr. announced the raises Wednesday during a town hall meeting with over 100 employees at a health clinic in Tahlequa.

The tribe's minimum hourly wage will increase from $9.50 to $11 when Hoskin signs the executive order in October. He takes office Aug. 14.

There are 415 government employees whose hourly wage is less than $11. The pay raise applies to 1,382 government employees earning between $11 and less than $15 hourly

Pay increases apply only to full-time Cherokee Nation government, clinic and hospital employees. It won't affect the tribe's business entities.

Cherokee Nation employs about 3,850 people in total.

Source: AP, Tusla World