The Senate Committee on Labor will hold a public hearing today regarding a bill that would increase minimum wage rates throughout the state.

Will we prioritize investors’ ability to wring profits out of their second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) homes, or will we preserve our neighborhoods for the benefit of those who actually live in them? The choice is ours.

Hawaiʻi's high poverty rate means ensuring more students have access to healthy meals is imperative.

Two or three jobs are not enough to provide financial stability for many local families. How can we create CHANGE?

The council planning committee heard seven bills that would drastically change the fees, fines and enforcement on thousands of Oʻahu short-term rentals.

While calls for a crackdown on short-term rentals grow louder, their rapid expansion accounts for a big chunk of the recent growth in the state’s largest industry.

One gets little sense that there is a plan behind Hawaiʻi’s tourism growth beyond sustaining it.

The Honolulu City Council must push forward for the sake of establishing a balance between collecting taxes owed and deterring further illegal vacation rentals.

Honolulu’s weak law makes it hard to crack down on illegal vacation rentals, but a new law is in the works.

Hawaiʻi Appleseed released a report Monday as the city council prepares again to debate a bill addressing the issue after years of public frustration.

Last week, residents from Waimea to Hanalei reported receiving form letters from VRBO, looking for homeowners who want to cash in by listing their properties as short-term vacation rentals.

The least wealthy income earners in Hawaiʻi pay the second most in taxes of any state in the union, according to an analysis of tax systems across the country.

While the official poverty average from 2015–2017 makes Hawaiʻi look like an economic paradise, the supplemental measure puts Hawaiʻi at the 10th-highest rate.

The Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice supports the effort to regulate short-term rentals, but opposes this measure.

When taking into account the cost of living—especially housing costs—Hawaiʻi has the 10th highest poverty rate in the country.

A $766 million investment over a decade could house the 1,700 chronically homeless individuals across Hawaiʻi and save the state $2 billion in healthcare costs.

With supplemental data, Hawaiʻi falls to the 10th highest poverty rate in the nation at 15 percent, or 210,000 residents in poverty, according to Hawaiʻi Appleseed.

Incomes are slightly higher but housing costs are still among the worst in the nation.

The state is taking action to crack down on vacation rental owners who aren't paying taxes.

Numbers don’t lie, but they sometimes tell tall tales. And often, they leave a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering why the data don’t seem to reflect the same reality they see.