All tagged Worker's Rights
At a Labor for Living Wages rally at the Hawai’i State Capitol on Wednesday, Kona Rep. Jeanne Kapela said current wages cannot begin to satisfy the state’s highest cost-of-living standards in the nation.
The vast majority of those who testified at Monday’s LCA meeting favored the 2026 date for the increase, with 113 testifying in support of the 2026 date and 11 individuals testifying in support of the 2028 date. Five favored a Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce proposal for $15 an hour by 2027, and 11 favored no increase at all.
This demonstration comes after the state House pivoted away from the original minimum-wage proposal, Senate Bill 2018, that would have incrementally increased the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2026.
All Hawaiʻi workers should be able to make ends meet with one job, and it’s our legislature’s responsibility to make that a reality.
The latest state data show a single adult would need to make about $17 to $18 an hour at a full-time job to afford to live in Hawaiʻi.
House leaders are resisting union pressure to revive bills this year that would raise the minimum wage and exempt jobless benefits from state income taxes.
They killed bills to raise the state minimum wage and to help the unemployed.
Teamsters, ILWU and Local 5 leaders ask House Speaker Scott Saiki to schedule a floor vote by Wednesday.
“Sickening, just sickening,” writes Joel Fischer, Waiʻalae resident.