Working families need help, not gamesmanship
But at the beginning of the year, I was confident that the Legislature would increase the minimum wage.
The reasons seemed obvious:
The need is urgent. The gap between the $10.10 minimum wage and what a single adult worker needs to earn — about $19 per hour — to cover basic living expenses, coupled with recent inflation, means that lower-income families are struggling more than ever.
There is broad public support. A February 2022 poll found that 77% of residents wanted to raise the minimum wage, while an earlier poll showed that 57% of business leaders supported substantial minimum wage increases.
Policymakers back it. Increasing the minimum wage topped the agendas of both House and Senate leadership at the beginning of the session, and the Hawai Democratic Party named it as a chief legislative priority.
Yet with just over a week left in the legislative session, no minimum wage bill has passed. The House and the Senate are caught up in a political game of chicken that could have devastating consequences.
