Guarantee of living wage would help our communities thrive
The need for a living wage is pressing. More than two decades as the CEO of AlohaCare has made me very familiar with the needs of the most vulnerable in Hawaiʻi. Since retiring two years ago, my seat on the board of PHOCUSED has allowed me to clearly see, through our community partner organizations, the challenges posed by poverty among children, kupuna, those with special needs, and low-income workers.
It does not take acute powers of observation to see what a difference to life a little more income would make. The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is clear: $21,000 a year—that’s what full-time, minimum-wage workers make at $10.10 an hour—simply does not allow them to meet basic needs in high-cost Hawaiʻi. It is by no stretch of the imagination—or the dollar—a living wage.
We are a deeply interconnected island community. Don’t those interconnections and our sense of ʻohana and aloha require us to use all the tools at our disposal to lessen the suffering of our families, friends and neighbors? Reducing the disproportionate tax burden on the poor is one of those tools. Enacting a living wage—$17 an hour—is another.
