Senate committee approves plan to hike minimum wage for Hawaiʻi workers, state employees
A key Senate committee Thursday advanced a bill to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour this year for state workers and gradually increase it to $15 an hour by 2023 for other workers in Hawaiʻi.
House Bill 1191, which passed the Senate Ways and Means Committee, also provides a tax credit to small businesses to cushion the impact of paying out more in personnel costs.
Increasing the minimum wage is a priority for the Hawaiʻi Democratic Party, which passed a resolution last year advocating for a living wage in Hawaiʻi. Currently, the minimum wage in Hawaiʻi is $10.10 an hour, which equates to about $21,000 annually for full-time workers.
