The call for a living wage

Hopefully the following facts presented to lawmakers by Nicole Woo of Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s Center for Law & Economic Justice will guide their decision-making. Nearly 50 percent of families in our state struggle with incomes below a minimum survival budget.

To make ends meet in Hawaiʻi, workers must earn:

• $17 per hour in 2019 for a single person with no children, with employer-provided health insurance, according to Hawaiʻi’s own Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).

• $27.44 an hour to afford a 1-bedroom rental in Hawaiʻi in 2018, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

• $24.78 an hour in 2017 for a single person with no children in Honolulu County to have a “modest yet adequate standard of living,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.

• $21.52 an hour in 2018 for a single childless worker in Hawaiʻi to achieve “basic economic security,” according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

At present, lawmakers are looking at a bill that raises the minimum wage to $12.50 in 2024 for those who get healthcare from their employers. That’s an increase of about 50 cents an hour each year and it simply is not enough.