Advocates for a living wage will be asking our elected officials to deliver on their promises and pass a living wage bill in the 2021 legislative session. But we can’t do it without support from you.
It’s time to Raise Up Hawaiʻi
Every worker deserves a Living Wage.
All in Living Wage
Hawaiʻi enacted the nation’s first statewide $18 minimum wage law, with Gov. David Ige’s signature of a bill aimed at fighting poverty among the islands’ workers.
Don’t make our lowest-wage earners wait and wonder any longer. They need and deserve this modest raise.
While House Speaker Scott Saiki and his leadership faction will claim the credit, this group has actually been the greatest impediment to increasing the minimum wage and denying workers a pay increase over the past four years.
It’s only 60 days long, but Hawaiʻi’s legislative session this year was a monumental affair featuring some self-reform, historic spending and a return to in-person public participation, all largely in the wake of a bribery scandal, a budget deficit and peak coronavirus infections.
After two years of COVID-induced budget cuts, the state legislature took advantage of a rebounding economy and federal relief funding to enact an ambitious agenda.
“People should be able to afford their basic needs on 40 hours a week,” said Nate Hix, the director of Living Wage Hawaii, an advocacy group that has been pushing for a higher minimum wage.
Advocates say the raise is badly needed in a state that routinely tops lists for most expensive housing and cost of living.
The measure passed with a vote of 48-3 over in the House. Rep. Jeanne Kapela said it is well past time to give Hawaiʻi workers a living wage.
Hawaiʻi is poised to establish ostensibly the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation, raising it to $18 an hour by 2028, under legislation that state lawmakers sent to Gov. David Ige.
