Hawaiʻi legislature 2022: smart spending could help big problems

State political leaders have talked about diversifying Hawaiʻi’s economy for decades, but when the pandemic hit, the state’s continuing over-dependence on tourism became brutally obvious as unemployment soared to record levels.

The dominant tourism industry is all about service sector jobs such as workers in restaurants and hotels, and today’s economy does not reward people in such jobs, said Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

The issue is what we value, “and we don’t give service workers value. We don’t value them, and that shows up in our minimum wage, it shows up in our lack of housing opportunities for lower and middle-income families.”