Governor Neil Abercrombie has proposed a bill to increase minimum wage in the state of Hawaii to $8.75 per hour starting in January 2014. Currently, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has been that way since 2006. Abercrombie stated, “Many of Hawaii’s residents are the products of plantation-era workers, people who worked and toiled in the fields, earning the bare minimum in order to afford a better opportunity for their families. Today there still exists a hardworking sector of our society that deserves continued recognition. These are the working-class residents who earn the minimum wage.”
While many workers naturally applaud the governor’s plan, businesses have expressed concern about how such a rapid increase would actually lead to them laying off workers. State Senate President, Donna Mercado Kim, commented, “I acknowledge the fact that a lot of our workers deserve an increase. What that increase should be, we have to balance that out with our businesses. Many of our smaller businesses have been closing down, our mom-and-pop businesses, and the burdens that we put on them in addition to the minimum wage, what kind of taxes, unemployment insurance and all of those things have to be taken into consideration.”
Hawaii Employers Council assistant general counsel, Ryan Sanada, agrees with Kim. Sanada stated, “A dollar fifty is basically over 20 percent of the current minimum wage. In the private sector you rarely see a wage increase of 20 percent. We appear to be coming out of the recession, but I don’t think we’re coming out of it yet, so a raise of $1.50 seems to be pretty big to me at this time.”
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 1-23-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
