Hawaii-2024-HB1798-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii's cost of living continues to be burdensome for the State's residents. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's "Out of Reach 2023" report, a minimum wage employee must work one hundred seven hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental home at fair market prices. To afford a two-bedroom residence without being cost burdened, the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that a person must earn $41.83 per hour. The State's electricity prices are also the highest in the nation, while cost of other essential items, like food and clothing, have risen significantly in recent years.

The legislature further finds that Act 114, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022, gradually increases Hawaii's minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2028. However, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage calculator estimates that in 2023, a livable wage in the State for a single adult with no children was $22.05 per hour, and was $43.75 per hour for a single adult with one child.

The legislature additionally finds that the December 2023 report "The High Cost of Low Wages" published by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice found that tying the minimum wage to cost of living increases prevents wage stagnation by ensuring that the minimum wage keeps pace with inflation. The report asserts that doing so would ensure that the minimum wage would continue to grow as the cost of basic necessities rises. Currently, thirteen states and the District of Columbia index their minimum wage rates to the cost of living, most often by linking their minimum wage rates to consumer price data.

The purpose of this Act is to ensure financial security for low wage workers in the State by linking Hawaii's minimum wage increases to the consumer price index.

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, 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;

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

(8) $12.00 per hour beginning October 1, 2022;

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

(10) $16.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2026; [~~and~~]

(11) $18.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2028; and

(12) Beginning January 1, 2029, and every year thereafter, the per hour rate as calculated pursuant to subsection (c).

(b) The hourly wage of a tipped employee may be deemed to be increased on account of tips if the employee is paid no less than:

(1) 25 cents;

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

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

(4) $1.00 per hour beginning October 1, 2022;

(5) $1.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2024; and

(6) $1.50 per hour beginning January 1, 2028,

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.

(c) Beginning September 30, 2028, and every year thereafter, the department shall calculate an adjusted minimum wage rate 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 was 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:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1798
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII