Bussewitz reports: "Hawaii has raised its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, putting the state among the first to meet President Obama's goal of increasing the minimum wage nationwide."

(photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Hawaii Raises Minimum Wage to $10.10 an Hour

By Cathy Bussewitz, Associated Press

26 May 14

awaii has raised its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, putting the state among the first to meet President Obama's goal of increasing the minimum wage nationwide.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed the minimum wage bill into law in a ceremony Friday, marking the first time Hawaii's minimum wage will be raised from $7.25 since 2007.

The increase will be phased in gradually over four years. Abercrombie said he wished the hike was coming quicker, but "we're swimming in the water that we're in."

"I always thought it's not a minimum wage, it's a survival wage," Abercrombie said. "And in today's world, that minimum wage is not a survival wage, certainly in Hawaii."

Hawaii is the third state this year to increase its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, following Connecticut and Maryland, said Jack Temple, policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project.

Supporters say higher wages will help working families. Living costs are high in Hawaii because nearly everything from apples to air fresheners is shipped to the island chain.

"Money put into the hands of Hawaii's working people will get spent, it will increase the economic activity in the state," said Rep. Mark Nakashima, a Big Island Democrat.

Some had argued the change will hurt small businesses and that managers may lay off workers or hire fewer people. Abercrombie said he has heard the same argument since the 1960s.

"The take-home wage compared to the cost of living has steadily gone down," Abercrombie said. "This country is about moving up."

Sen. Clayton Hee, a Democrat who represents Kaneohe, said he wished the resulting minimum wage hike was better, but lawmakers had to reach a compromise.

"I grew up thinking meat came from a can, not a cow...because that's all we could afford," Hee said. "That's what local people do. We make ends meet."

Employers with tipped employees can get a credit of 50 cents per hour starting in 2015 and 75 cents per hour in 2016 for those workers who earn $7 more per hour than the minimum wage.

"Hawaii's move to do that really sets it apart," Temple said. "For the vast majority of tipped workers, employers will have to pay the minimum wage."

There are seven states that have no tip credit, meaning that tipped workers can keep all of their wages and tips without having a tip credit taken out. But their laws have been on the books for decades, Temple said. Hawaii is the first state in recent history to enact a change to the tip credit that preserves the full minimum wage for the majority of workers, he said.

Comments

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+52 # Kumari 2012-10-12 13:55

why does the richest nation in the world need to spend anything on food stamps? why cant americans afford to buy food?
it might be a rich country but as far as i'm concerned it's morally bankrupt

+8 # jlohman 2012-10-13 19:21

Of course free education makes sense, but there's no money in it for the politicians. They'd rather spend our tax dollars on things that draw campaign bribes (like defense weapons).

see http://MoneyedPoliticians.net

-7 # Luis Emilio 2012-10-12 14:23

In which states is the Green Party running? Maryland? Will e vote for the Green Party endanger Obama?

+5 # Muzzi 2012-10-13 11:14

Yes, it will split the vote. Obama is closer to the Green Party than the Republicans. Remember that jerk that Ronald Reagan appointed, and how he sold the environment and the animals down the polluted river?

+16 # dick 2012-10-12 14:40

ABC, NBC, CNN, & CBS do more damage than FAUX. They relentlessly portray an insane status quo as wonderful, natural.

+28 # bmiluski 2012-10-12 14:40

Is that a type (Ihope)....Pres ident Obama is pulling our troops out in 2014 NOT 2024.

+29 # cordleycoit 2012-10-12 14:53

We are scalping the children's education and heath to feed the war on terror-Drugs-an d protest to make our Masters rich.The election is a sham the winners will be the Wall Street bankers no matter who you vote for.

+11 # Muzzi 2012-10-13 00:06

Right. We should legalize a lot of the drugs to take the profit out of them. When you do that, you will lower the crime rates. One of the Mayors in Baltimore said that years ago and everyone laughed at him. They should have listened. What did prohibition do, except make money for the Mafia?

+37 # James Smith 2012-10-12 15:15

America only rates number one in military spending. That's because too many companies are making huge profits from it. Even with the billions wasted on the military budget our people are not always the best-equipped. That is a national scandal, too. Does anyone thing that the military-indust rial complex care about the lives wasted?

+6 # Regina 2012-10-13 17:57

Endless war is the Republican mantra for population control. Killing adults in battle is OK -- just don't get in the way of a fertilized human cell, or even an as-yet unfertilized one, two weeks early. They scream against contraception and enact crazy invasive laws against women's control of their own bodies. They join forces with religious interests in violation of the Constitution. The real driving fact underlying their malarkey is the profits they rake in from their military adventures -- they're so obsessed that they pass funding provisions for equipment that the military says they don't need or want. That's how they generate deficits that they then proceed to rant against. Who else demands support for two totally directly opposing sets of policies????

+2 # independentmind 2012-10-14 14:07

You notice too that not one of Mitt Romney's five sons is in the services, most of the kids that are in there came from less wealthy homes and do it to have their education paid for.

+20 # nancyw 2012-10-12 15:38

The age old dilemma of wanting to vote for what we believe in and is best for the country, but having to vote for a major party so the worse of possibilties can be prevented.

Just not right. But I don't want more destruction from a revolution... We need to think out of the box to fix this country.

+19 # worldviewer 2012-10-12 15:50

HOSTAGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
Does Obama really want US In Afghanistan until 2024? Or is he the hostage in the White House?
It's clear transnational business is trying to take over our government and our nation. They control the news and advertising that shapes how people think. And they would like to divide people--and the votes.
Remember what Gandhi and Martin Luther King understood--tha t each of us holds a bit of power. And if we the people join our power together we are more powerful than the 1%.

+8 # GGmaw 2012-10-13 06:10

Considering the transnational business interests working against him, Obama has done a very good job. People are fed a line of propoganda by the main media. Everything that has happened in our economy was carefully planned - read the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - she predicted the recession years ago.

+19 # Linwood 2012-10-12 15:55

The fundamental question is why Americans accept the status quo.
People in other western democracies would not put up with the status of working Americans. What happened to that revolutionary spirit?

+33 # Gordon K 2012-10-12 16:06

+22 # socrates2 2012-10-12 19:33

Gordon K, hear, hear!
I, too, happen to like the sly paragraph in Part 2, Chapter 9, from "THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM by Emmanuel Goldstein," to wit, "And at the same time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival. War, it will be seen, accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way."
Nothing like a little fear to block critical thinking and to "persuade" majorities to surrender every shred of freedom and dignity.
Viva, Orwell!

-10 # mangel 2012-10-12 16:57

I agree with you but you do not provide enough support for exiting Afghanistan. The fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons makes it a good idea the avoid having them under the control of a pro-Taliban government. This is an issue you need to address. You don't even address the possible consequences of leaving the area. It makes me wonder if you have even thought about it.

+12 # Nell H 2012-10-12 18:04

The future of America depends on graduating more scientists in mathematical fields -- mathematicians, engineers, biologists, computer scientists. If states would support these students (who are citizens) at their top state-supported universities with full tuition, room and board as long as they make satisfactory progress we would graduate the people we need to move our great country forward.

+15 # Bev 2012-10-12 20:08

Fundamental to all these issues is true education, not schooling. We have been dumbed down! We are not taught (by design) to think outside the box. Uneducated citizens are fearful of change and under duress, look back to the past (as in Tea Partiers) instead of looking to the future and with confidence to embrace innovation.

+15 # tazia@aol.com 2012-10-12 21:49

Quoting Bev:

Fundamental to all these issues is true education, not schooling. We have been dumbed down! We are not taught (by design) to think outside the box. Uneducated citizens are fearful of change and under duress, look back to the past (as in Tea Partiers) instead of looking to the future and with confidence to embrace innovation.

I have to agree..since "no child left behend", kids are taught to take the test rather than think what the lesson is about.

+7 # ladypyrates 2012-10-12 21:01

The comments here are dead on right but it's disheartening that so many Americans have no clue as to the economic heritage given us by the founders. If nothing else, go to normeconomics@att.net and try to get an idea of the economic structure that was the basis for our incredible prosperity. When one understands how unique the American system is, it's quite easy to identify how it's been dismantled and who the culprits are that have been working for it's demise.

+2 # 4yourinformation 2012-10-13 12:49

LIKE LIKE LIKE this article!

This is what the debates should be about. Joe Biden kicked Ryan's ass but he did it inside the parameters of established and allowable topics and information.

We need a REAL genuine debate about the entire menu of important concepts and facts.

Jill Stein would make those arguments.

0 # seefeellove 2012-10-14 11:53

What is one of the dumbest and most inhumane practices? That health and education, education being part of our health, are inaccessible for many.

In a world that is smart and compassionate, education and health care would be integrated systems and free for all. Also, every single person would have the best health care and education, accommodating everyone's needs. Privatization of this single system would be illegal, forever.

Who will pay for it? The people who believe they can never have enough money.

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