The cost of child care for an infant or a 4-year-old in Hawaii exceeds the price of college tuition, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The institute’s research calculated the cost of child care versus in-state public college tuition state by state for 2014.

In Hawaii, infant care costs were 146 percent of tuition, while care for a 4-year-old was 109.6 percent. Costs in Washington, D.C., topped the nation at 308.9 percent and 243.5 percent, respectively.

The 2014 cost of living for a two-parent, two-child family in the Honolulu area was $94,092 a year, or $7,841 a month. The EPI calculation reflects what researchers called a modest yet adequate standard of living.

A full-time worker earning the minimum wage of $7.75 would have to spend 74.4 percent of his or her income on child care for an infant in Hawaii, or 55.8 percent for a 4-year-old. A minimum wage earner in Hawaii would have to work a full-time, 40-hour week from January until July, or 1,162 hours, to cover annual child care costs for a 4-year-old. Some 1,548 hours of work would be required to pay for care for an infant, from January until September.

The institute found in its research that only a fraction of U.S. economic growth is trickling down to average households, and that child care costs are especially onerous for workers earning the minimum wage. EPI researchers are calling on governments, business leaders and families to make funding for quality child care a priority.

The full report can be found online. 808ne.ws/ChildCareHI

VW might compensate diesel car owners

DETROIT >> Volkswagen could compensate owners of diesel-powered cars that emit high levels of pollutants, possibly by paying them for the lost value of their vehicles, the company’s top U.S. executive said.

Speaking to lawmakers investigating the emissions cheating, U.S. CEO Michael Horn also said fixing most of the 500,000 affected cars in the U.S. could take one to two years, possibly more. The fix, he said, would not hurt fuel mileage, but it could hinder the cars’ performance, knocking one or two miles per hour off the top speed.

Fed officials still see rate rise in 2015

The Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year provided slower global growth doesn’t undermine forecasts for higher inflation, said two policymakers, while Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said the word from his counterparts abroad was “please do it.”

“And we will do it, probably, at some point, but we’re not going to do it at a time that is not suitable for the United States economy,” Fischer told CNN International in an interview in Lima, where he is attending a meeting of the Group of 20 major industrialized nations.

Officials last month kept the rate near zero, where it has been since December 2008, to see whether slower Chinese growth undermines their forecast that U.S. inflation will move back to the Fed’s 2 percent target, minutes of the September meeting released Thursday showed.

UAW leaders approve Fiat Chrysler contract

DETROIT >> The United Auto Workers union unveiled a richer proposed contract with Fiat Chrysler on Friday, a week after angry union members voted down a previous agreement.

The new agreement would gradually eliminate a much-maligned tiered pay system and bring all U.S. factory workers to the same wage over eight years. The previous agreement had only promised a top wage of $25 per hour for lower-tiered workers, which is less than the $29 per hour that longtime workers would make.

ON THE MOVE

The Department of Public Safety has named Renee Sonobe Hong as state Sheriff Division administrator, as of this Friday. She was previously a deputy attorney general for the Public Safety Department, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Housing Division of the attorney general’s office. Prior to that Sonobe Hongo served as first deputy corporation counsel for the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of the Corporation Counsel.

The Queen’s Health Systems has named Jason C. Chang as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Queen’s Health Systems and the Queen’s Medical Center. He has experience working in not-for-profit Catholic health care and the for-profit health care sector, including serving as CEO of the McAllen Heart Hospital and the South Texas Health System.