Wages & Labor
Hawaiʻi made a significant stride forward in 2022 with the passage of a law raising the minimum wage to $18 an hour by the year 2028—raising the incomes of some 200,000 low-wage workers by a total of $1 billion in higher wages each year. But even that progress isn’t enough to overcome the high cost of living in Hawaiʻi, and workers continue to be vulnerable to the impacts of missed work for illness or to care for a loved one or child. There is a clear and immediate need for stronger safety net programs for workers and their families to help cope with the cost of caring for loved ones while missing work.
In particular, a paid family leave and paid sick leave program for workers would each increase economic stability for the workforce, businesses and the overall economy. These policies are more complex than the comparatively straightforward minimum wage increase, and it will require education for both community members and lawmakers to build the necessary support, both inside and outside of the Capitol, to get these policies implemented. Effective communication will be able to demonstrate that, like so many things, investing the upfront cost of funding these programs will be well-worth the long term savings and economic multiplier effects that these programs generate by strengthening the workforce. The improved quality of life, reduced healthcare costs, reduced unemployment costs, reduced eviction costs, and economic stimulus of a strengthened working class will pay for these programs many times over.
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The United States is the only developed nation that doesn’t provide its workers with paid family leave. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides employees with only unpaid leave, and more than 40 percent of private sector workers are not covered by it. Meanwhile, the Hawai‘i Family Leave Law provides only four weeks of unpaid leave and also fails to cover around 40 percent of the state’s workforce. Hawai‘i’s temporary disability insurance program offers partial wage replacement to workers recovering from illness or injury, including childbirth, but no job protection. It’s also not available to non-biological parents or to family caregivers.
Low-wage workers are the least likely to have access to paid family leave, while they need the financial support of paid leave the most. With more and more of our kūpuna needing care, our state needs to create a safety net for families facing serious caregiving responsibilities. Although some individual companies offer employees paid leave, this benefit is typically only available to higher-income workers. Nationally, only 6 percent of low-wage workers have access to paid family leave. This lack of access to paid family leave has profound consequences for our working families.
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Solutions include substantially increasing public financing of affordable housing, as well as the creation of a state level child tax credit.