The Hawaii Legislature will consider a minimum wage hike and an increase in the food tax credit, House Speaker Scott Saiki, D-Kakaako, said on the first day of the session.
The proposal would raise the minimum wage gradually to $18 an hour. The bill package proposed by Saiki, D-Kakaako, during his opening remarks also would make the earned income tax credit refundable and permanent. If all three proposals pass, Hawaii families would see their income increase by $33,600 on average, he said.
The state’s minimum wage is $10.10 an hour and has not increased since 2018, said Sen. Kurt Fevella of Ewa Beach, the Senate’s lone Republican.
“The time has come for change,” Fevella said. “In order to support an increase to the minimum wage, we have to make sure that our hospitality industry is (on) a path to recovery so that we can be strong in our economy.”
Sen. President Ronald Kouchi, D-Kauai, said retaining teachers and public service workers is challenging as the average costs of a home in Hawaii is one of the “major impediments.”
And while the Senate is concerned about raising the minimum wage, Kouchi said “the thing that keeps me up at night is the learning loss that will have a generational impact potentially on these young people who will not be able to achieve their goals that they dreamed about because their educational opportunities did not allow them to succeed.”
Lawmakers will also tackle Gov. David Ige’s $16.9 million proposed budget.
The governor did not mention a minimum wage increase when he revealed his budget in December.
Lawmakers will be asked to set aside $1 billion into the state’s Emergency and Budget Reserve Fund. General fund tax revenue increased 27.3% during the first five months of fiscal year 2022, Ige said at the time.
“We’ve seen increased consumer spending, the rapid recovery of visitor arrivals, and healthy general excise and income tax collections,” Ige said. “The increased revenues allow us to launch initiatives that are responsive to the pandemic and restore critical services that were previously reduced.”
