Throw ethical arguments out the window and consider the minimum wage “Fight for $15” from a business perspective—we should sell goods and services at a price above what they cost to produce.

Imagine a rental company that spends $30,000 a year in upkeep on its products. Now, imagine this company rents their products out for only $21,000. The company loses $9,000 annually because of this. There is not a company in the world that would operate with margins like this, yet Hawaiʻi is following exactly this business model with its residents.

The current cost of living in Hawaiʻi is $30,000 for one adult, but we only make corporations pay $21,000 for a full-time minimum wage worker. This results in a $9,000 “survival gap,” a margin our state should not accept.

This gap does not simply go away because someone makes a low wage. The $9,000 difference is inevitably paid by Hawaiʻi’s residents through social programs and unmet basic needs.

Having our workers available at a discount is a losing business strategy for the state and our residents, costing us billions each year. Senate Bill 2291, which would increase the minimum wage to $12.25 per hour in 2019 and $15 per hour in 2020, offers the ability to correct this mistake by making corporations pay the true cost of the workforce that they get.

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