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.
Hawaiʻi’s chronically low wages are a disaster bigger then Hurricane ʻIniki or the 2018 Puna lava flow, writes one Hawaiʻi Island resident.
The bill’s supporters want the minimum wage increased to $17 an hour by 2026—a hike they say is also good for businesses because it boosts consumer spending.
Economic impact payments—checks—will help, but they are not enough to truly set us on a path to an equitable recovery. For that, we need more targeted measures. One key action is long overdue—raising the federal minimum wage.
Recent polling confirms that swing district voters overwhelmingly side with workers leading the fight to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Across all demographics, voters confirm that this is a policy that is good for workers and good for their communities.
The moral and civic renewal we need requires a radical reframing of the terms of economic debate. Our economic foundations must be centered around people—not markets.
One policy clearly perpetuating systematic racism in Hawaiʻi is the state’s oppressively low minimum wage.
It is one of the shameful ironies of our time that Hawaiʻi continues to fail to address the injustice that many workers deemed essential do not receive a wage that meets their essential needs.
