Hawaiʻi’s low wages thwart King’s goals
While most known for his work on desegregation, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last years of his life fighting for economic justice. He realized that racial freedoms mean nothing if people are unable to afford their basic needs.
“Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now, that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?”
In the immediate years leading up to his assassination, King organized the Poor People’s Campaign to draw attention to the extreme levels of poverty afflicting all races within this nation of abundance. The campaign fought to ensure all Americans have access to affordable food and shelter as a basic human right.
In the last month before he died, King rallied with and spoke to Memphis sanitation workers who were striking for higher wages. He made it very clear where he stood on the issue of wages that are below what’s needed to survive.
“You are reminding, not only Memphis, but you are reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”
Along with those living in poverty in Hawaiʻi, a total of 48 percent of households are unable to afford their basic needs. This, while unemployment rates are at historical lows. That can only mean that local residents can find jobs, but their wages are nowhere near high enough for them to make ends meet.
It’s sad to see that the cause this revered figure was fighting for has gone unaddressed by the Hawaiʻi Legislature. Our legal minimum wage is less than two-thirds of what is needed to survive, which has resulted in more than 40 percent of jobs in the state paying starvation wages.
Hawaiʻi showed support for King’s desegregation efforts when the Rev. Abraham Akaka, brother of longtime U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, attended the 1963 March on Washington, and then sent lei for King and other activists to wear during the 1965 Selma march for voting rights. Unfortunately, Hawaiʻi has not supported his fight for economic justice.