Raise Up Hawaiʻi demands higher minimum wage
“People are having a hard time making a living. We can’t live on $10.10 an hour,” said Raymond Catania, referring to the state’s current minimum wage. “Hawaiʻi has one of the highest costs of living in the United States, and we need more money in order to pay rent and buy food to take care of our kids.”
The 71-year-old Catania described himself as a lifelong labor rights advocate. He represented two organizations Wednesday, including Hawaiʻi Workers Center and Raise Up Hawaiʻi, the second of which claims any wage less than $17 is not enough to pay for necessities like food, housing, transportation and health care.
Raise Up Hawaiʻi takes its $17 figure from the state self-sufficiency standard report, published by the Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism in December 2019.
DBEDT reported a single adult in Honolulu County with no children needed to earn an hourly wage of $17.21 in 2018 to be able to meet their basic needs and to be economically self-sufficient (a single adult in Kauaʻi County needed to earn $16.48 in 2018).
