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In January 2015, Hawaii’s minimum wage increased by 50 cents in the first of four annual increases that have lifted the floor on hourly pay here to the current rate, $10.10. State lawmakers are now weighing whether it should be bumped up again — but there’s more cause for caution today than there was in the minimum-wage debate four years ago.
Senate Bill 2291 would raise the wage to $12.25 next January, and to $15 in 2020.
Supporters of the push toward the $15-mark (roughly $30,000 annually for a full-time employee) assert that bigger paychecks could help workers make financial ends meet and boost the economy by giving some consumers more money to spend.
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From PRI:
Last week it was reported that average hourly wages of American workers grew 2.9 percent over the past 12 months. It’s a good sign, but American workers still have a lot of catching up to do and income inequality and wage stagnation remain major concerns…Yes, national wages inched up last year. But consider this statistic from Michelle Webster with the Colorado Center on Law & Policy: “In 2016, median earnings for workers in the state were 2 percent less than what they earned in 2000″ when adjusted for inflation.
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Hawaii’s hourly minimum wage would increase over two years to $15 by 2020 under a proposal advanced Tuesday by the Senate Labor Committee.
Senate Bill 2291 would raise the state’s minimum wage from $10.10 an hour to $12.25 per hour in 2019, and to $15 per hour the following year — a 48 percent increase overall. The rate increased to its current level on Jan. 1, the final of four annual increases that began in 2015.
Hawaii is one of 13 states with a minimum wage of $10 an hour or higher. An estimated 4.6 percent of hourly workers in the state, or about 30,000 employees, are paid the minimum wage, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The proposal was widely supported by labor organizations and individuals who said Hawaii’s high cost of living quickly eats up wages here, but was strongly opposed by employers who contend costs are too high.
The Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice testified that at $10.10 per hour a person working full time with no days off earns $21,000 a year in gross income. “With the highest cost of living in the nation, mainly caused by sharp increases in the cost of housing, $10.10 is not a living wage for a single adult in Hawaii, much less adults supporting children and others,” the center said.
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On Monday, New Year’s Day, some workers in Colorado will get a pay raise. The minimum wage will increase 90 cents, from $9.30 to $10.20 an hour. This is because Colorado voters passed a law that gradually increases the minimum wage; by the final year of the plan, in 2020, it will grow to $12 an hour.
As was the case prior to the passage of Amendment 70 in November 2016, both proponents and those in opposition to it have made arguments about its impact after the first year. Sonia Riggs, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association, is against the increased wage. She tells Colorado Matters it will cause restaurants to close and create a greater pay disparity between servers and workers in the back of the operation, like dishwashers.
Michelle Webster, manager of research and policy analysis with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, is for the wage increase. It’s an important means of elevating the economic impact of the state’s lowest-paid workers, Webster tells Colorado Matters.