LIHU‘E — A contentious state House minimum-wage bill was one of the more than 500 measures to survive the first crossover deadline, passing the full body on Tuesday.
Bills that do not make it out of the state House or Senate by today are most likely dead for this session.
The crossover is where approved measures move from the House to the Senate, or the Senate to the House.
The minimum-wage bill, House Bill 2510, passed in a much-more-limited form than originally introduced. Amendments in the Finance Committee removed most provisions from the bill while also shortening the timeline so the minimum wage hits $18 in 2028 instead of 2030.
For some, the bill does not move fast enough to keep pace with the cost of living. Many organizations and individuals provided testimony in committee which instead supported Senate Bill 2018, which would increase the wage to $18 by 2026. Senate Bill 2018 passed through the Senate quickly but has stalled in the House.
“If you spend eight hours a day laboring to build profit for your employer, you deserve to be paid enough to meet your basic needs for the day,” said Rep. Amy Peruso, speaking in opposition to the measure at the Tuesday vote. “Anything less than that is theft of your time, your labor and your life.”
A state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism report says that a worker would need an hourly wage of $18.35 to afford the cost of living in 2020, while a worker on Kaua‘i would have needed a wage of $19.62.
According to pro-minimum-wage group Raise Up Hawai‘i there are currently 88,000 minimum-wage workers in Hawai‘i, amounting to 14% of the total workforce.
Other representatives voiced concerns that the minimum-wage increase would be too steep, causing economic damage, including state Rep. Lauren Matsumoto, who said her family’s egg farm would be forced to cut half its staff if the bill passed.
The bill would also increase the tip credit, which allows businesses to pay tipped employees sub-minimum wage, while making the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) permanent and refundable — projected to be a boon to working-class families.
The House also addressed EITC in HB1507, which passed over to the Senate Tuesday. This bill would make the EITC permanent and refundable while increasing the tax rate on capital gains.
Proponents of the bill call it a step towards tax fairness.
“While families who earn less than $20,000 a year pay 15% of their income in state and local taxes, those who make over $450,000 annually pay only 9%,” said state Rep. Jeanne Kapela, speaking in support of the measure.
Additionally, legislation offering $600 million in state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands funding seems poised to become reality, with bills appropriating the funds passing both the House and Senate Tuesday.
