Hawaiʻi’s keiki are still waiting for universal free school meals. The time to act is now.
Research shows that consistent access to nutritious meals improves both academic performance and long-term health. Yet, in 2023, 6 percent of Hawaiʻi households with children had one or more children go a whole day without food.
The big budget trouble with HB2404’s over-broad and sweeping tax cuts
Last minute changes to the bill, made without public scrutiny, will increase its cost by nearly eight-fold, while higher-income households will get a far bigger benefit than those struggling to make ends meet.
Congress considers making the federal Child Tax Credit refundable; Hawaiʻi considers Keiki Credit
H.R. 7024 is a reminder that the Child Tax Credit is a widely popular program with proven anti-poverty benefits.
Focusing in on people-first policy for the 2024 legislative session
Hawaiʻi Appleseed announces its legislative priorities for the 2024 session.
Hawaiʻi should eliminate its tipped sub-minimum wage
Research shows that employers frequently exploit tip credit provisions to pay their employees beneath the legal minimum wage. As a result, tipped workers tend to earn lower, less consistent wages than non-tipped workers, and they are more likely to experience poverty.
Put more money in working people’s pockets and reduce housing costs
This legislative session, Hawaiʻi Appleseed is pushing hard to implement a significant minimum wage increase, expand successful tax credits for low-income families, and lay the groundwork for housing policy that will mean no one in Hawaiʻi is left unsheltered because of poverty.
Federal spending reduced overall poverty last year despite the pandemic-recession
But in Hawaiʻi, tens of thousands of residents below the poverty line still struggled to make ends meet.