“The only way to make these programs universal, the only way to be sure that the waitress or the retail clerk has access to these programs, that every child gets the benefit of having a parent at home, that every elder has loving family surrounding them in their last days — the only way to do that is through social insurance,” said Economic Opportunity Institute Policy Director Marilyn Watkins.
Publication Type: Media
Senate Ways & Means chair blocks a bill to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour
A Hawaii state senator is blocking a bill that would increase Hawaii’s minimum wage after a series of pay hikes that was enacted in 2014 came to an end this year.
As of Jan. 1, the state minimum wage stands at $10.10.
Arianna Espinoza says with that rate, she’s barely getting by working at a retail store in Ala Moana full time, while also attending college full-time.
“Not only am I paying for my own rent, I’m paying my own insurance,” the 20 year old said.
A proposed bill would bump up the minimum wage to $12.25 per hour in 2019, then to $15 per hour in 2020, but the chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee is refusing to give it a hearing without more research.
New bill works towards equal pay in the workplace
A bill at the State Capitol is gaining momentum in the movement to help women in the workplace earn just as much as their male counterparts.
According to the Hawaii Appleseed Center, women in Hawaii make 16% less than men.
“The problem is that women are paid less than men for doing the same work. Its ridiculous in this decade in a supposedly developed nation,” said Susan Wurtzburg of AAU Hawaii.
The bill serves employers a one-two punch-prohibiting them from asking a job applicant about their previous wage history. Senator Laura Thielen says in many cases, where people previously were underpaid, it is perpetuated in successive jobs.
Gradually raise minimum wage
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.