I urge lawmakers to pass this bill for the good of all Hawaiʻi families, as they are counting on it to survive. During my research for a seminar on family matters at the University of Hawaiʻi honors program, I looked into single mothers and the economic and financial struggles they face trying to support themselves and their families.

According to Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, a Hawaiʻi worker would need to earn $27.44 per hour in 2018 to rent a one-bedroom home. This means that a current minimum-wage worker earning $10.10 an hour would have to work over 15 hours a day with no days off in order to afford that one-bedroom home. This is unacceptable. $10.10 an hour is not a living wage. $17 an hour is absolutely necessary for hardworking Hawaiʻi families to make ends meet.