THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2243
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to the minimum wage.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that one job should be enough to meet a person's basic needs. According to the department of business, economic development, and tourism, a single adult required an income of $35,143 to achieve self-sufficiency in Hawaii in 2018, while a single parent with one preschool-age child required an income of $59,428. Yet, at the existing statewide minimum wage rate of $10.10 per hour, a full-time minimum wage employee earns only $21,008 annually. Moreover, the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2021 report estimates that a minimum wage worker would have to work one hundred fourteen hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental home at local fair market rent in Hawaii.

The legislature further finds that increasing the State's minimum wage will help Hawaii's economy by giving low-wage workers greater purchasing power. According to the department of labor and industrial relations, in 2018, following four consecutive years of minimum wage increases, the state unemployment level reached an all-time low of two per cent demonstrating that increasing the minimum wage does not adversely impact statewide employment.

The legislature also finds that the virus known as "SARS‑CoV-2" causes a disease named "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19), which spread globally and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Upon reaching Hawaii's shores, the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted the local economy, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents unemployed, underemployed, or facing financial hardship. Low-wage workers were disproportionately harmed by Hawaii's economic downturn, which worsened their financial precarity and left thousands of working families unable to pay for food, housing, electricity, and other necessities.

The purpose of this Act is to uplift the financial well‑being of working families in Hawaii by increasing the state minimum wage rate.

SECTION 2. Section 387-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§387-2 Minimum wages. (a) Except as provided in section 387‑9 and [this section,] subsection (b), every employer shall pay to each employee employed by the employer, wages at the rate of not less than:

(1) $6.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2003;

(2) $6.75 per hour beginning January 1, 2006;

(3) $7.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2007;

(4) $7.75 per hour beginning January 1, 2015;

(5) $8.50 per hour beginning January 1, 2016;

(6) $9.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2017; [and]

(7) $10.10 per hour beginning January 1, 2018[.];

(8) $12.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2023;

(9) $14.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2024;

(10) $16.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2025; and

(11) $18.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2026.

(b) [The hourly wage of a tipped employee may be deemed to be increased on account of tips if the employee is paid not less than:

(1) 25 cents;

(2) 50 cents per hour beginning January 1, 2015; and

(3) 75 cents per hour beginning January 1, 2016,

below the applicable minimum wage by the employee's employer and the combined amount the employee receives from the employee's employer and in tips is at least 50 cents more than the applicable minimum wage; provided that beginning January 1, 2015, the combined amount the employee receives from the employee's employer and in tips is at least $7.00 more than the applicable minimum wage.] On September 30, 2026, and on September 30 of each year thereafter, the department shall calculate an adjusted minimum wage rate to replace the minimum wage rate established under subsection (a). The adjusted minimum wage rate shall take effect on the January 1 immediately following the September 30 on which it was calculated. The adjusted minimum wage rate shall be calculated to the nearest twenty-five cents using the Urban Hawaii Consumer Price Index, or a successor index, for the twelve months prior to September 1 of each year as calculated by the United States Department of Labor; provided that if in any year the adjustments based on the Urban Hawaii Consumer Price Index or a successor index, would result in a lower minimum wage rate, the adjusted minimum wage rate shall remain the same as the minimum wage rate in effect for the year in which it is calculated."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Minimum Wage

Description:

Raises the minimum wage and establishes an adjusted minimum wage rate for 2027 and after. Repeals the tip credit.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.