STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2275

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3152

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 3152 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WAGE AND HOUR LAW,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to repeal the categorical exclusion of employees who receive guaranteed compensation totaling $2,000 or more a month from the protections of Hawaii's Wage and Hour Law.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!, Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi Education Caucus, Hawaiʻi Workers Center, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that under the existing Hawaii Wage and Hour Law, the definition of "employee" excludes individuals who are employed at a guaranteed compensation totaling $2,000 or more a month. These employees are not provided the protection of minimum or overtime wage rates, and their employers are not required to comply with the law's recordkeeping provisions, also designed to protect workers. Your Committee further finds that while minimum wage continues to be changed and adjusted, the guaranteed compensation exemption has not been correspondingly changed. The last time the guaranteed compensation level was changed was in 2002, whilst minimum wage has been adjusted nine times since, and as of today, a monthly compensation of $2,100 is lower than the monthly wage of an employee earning the minimum wage of $14.00 per hour. This measure will allow more employees to be eligible for minimum wage, overtime compensation, and recordkeeping requirements regardless of their guaranteed monthly compensation.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3152, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3152, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Technology,

________________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair