What pushes locals out of Hawaiʻi? Low wages
Hawaiʻi has been enduring a cost of living crisis for decades. We constantly hear news stories about it; friends, neighbors, aunties and uncles repeat the refrain that our high cost of living is driving locals out of Hawaiʻi—forever changing the social and cultural fabric of our islands.
But constant talk of high prices pushing locals out may be obscuring another major factor in our affordability crisis: low wages.
According to a new report by UHERO, “Beyond the Price of Paradise: Is Hawaii Being Left Behind?”, Hawaiʻi’s affordability challenges are not merely a function of high prices. Instead, they are likely a combination of persistently low wages eroding the spending power of local families as prices for everything from housing to food to fuel continue to rise unabated.
For policymakers, addressing the issue of low wages has been a start and stop exercise. To the Hawaiʻi State Legislature’s credit, it has made significant strides in addressing low wages for working families by passing an historic increase in the minimum wage, raising it to $18 an hour by 2028. This has ensured greater economic stability for thousands of Hawaiʻi families, and has put us on a path toward having one of the highest minimum wages in the country.
But despite these gains, affordability remains a persistent challenge. Raising the minimum wage is a good start, as raising the wage floor can push wages up for other workers in the economy. But for those earning the minimum wage, the hard truth is that $18 an hour just isn’t enough to live in Hawaiʻi. For example, Aloha United Way’s ALICE Report shows that the survival wage for a single adult in Hawaiʻi is already $19.96 an hour—that’s just the wage needed to survive, not necessarily what’s needed to get ahead.
If we are truly going to address persistent low wages for Hawaiʻi’s workers, it may be time for us to look beyond adjusting the minimum wage and explore what a truly living wage looks like for Hawaiʻi. Fortunately, voters in the City and County of Honolulu may have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to make their voices heard on whether the county should pursue a living wage policy. If approved by voters, this proposal would instruct the city to begin developing a framework for implementing a living wage for Honolulu County.