Minimum wage increase could help over 200,000 workers, report says

Raising the minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2024 could mean a pay boost of over $4,300 a year for more than 200,000 Hawaiʻi workers, according to a new report by the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

The report released Tuesday details what demographics could be affected by a minimum wage increase in Hawaiʻi.

More than half of affected workers would be women, just over 28 percent would be parents and about 78 percent would be 25 or older. A wage boost could also affect 80 percent of food service workers and more than 65 percent of retail workers.

The report also disputes the argument opponents of a minimum wage increase make that a wage increase could hurt small businesses in Hawaiʻi. It says that minimum wage workers would likely spend their additional income in ways that boost the local economy.