On Jan. 15, 2020, the state Legislature and the Ige administration introduced a package of bills designed to provide cost-of-living relief to Hawaii’s working-class residents. As longtime local businesses, we support the Legislature’s joint package of bills, including an increase in the minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2024.

As local businesses, we take care of our employees and our employees take care of our customers. And, we take care of our business, because our business takes care of our employees. Our continued success ensures employment for our employees and provides a means for their families. We support our employees to reach their full potential and continually promote our team members into positions of greater responsibility, compensation and benefits.

This chain and continuity of support is increasingly challenging, as businesses face increasing costs to operate in Hawaii, which is consistently recognized as one of the worst states in which to start and run a business due to high costs and limited access to resources.

Every day, we are faced with tough decisions in order to succeed and to survive. We are constantly juggling the needs of our workforce, rising costs of goods and services, and adhering to new and ever-changing mandates. Whether it’s evaluating product feasibility or investing in our employees, these decisions contribute to our ability to continue to serve our customers and our community.

Furthermore, Hawaii is the only state in the country to require health-care coverage for all employees who work 20 hours or more per week — at a cost of nearly $6,000 per employee, annually, adding another $3 per hour to the minimum wage.

On Jan. 1, the salary cap for mandatory overtime rose by nearly $12,000 and more stringent laws regarding the use of plastic went into effect, contributing to overall operating costs.

Additionally, an increase in wages is tied to increased costs for other mandates, such as workers’ compensation, temporary disability and unemployment insurance; payroll taxes; and other voluntary benefit programs.

These collective costs associated with raising the minimum wage higher than $13 would be untenable for many Hawaii and locally owned businesses — leading to lost jobs, cuts or elimination of voluntary benefits, such as paid leave and retirement programs, and reductions in hours that could lead to the loss of health care.

As a result, the working families that the package is seeking to help, would instead be hurt and negatively impacted.

Increasing the minimum wage — at the same time when many other new mandates are being implemented — won’t be easy to manage. However, the business community must be collaborative in order to benefit our state’s collective future. As we know, an investment now will result in greater success for all of us.

Like our local businesses, our state faces significant challenges on how to make ends meet and invest in future growth and prosperity. While these challenges are significant, we still believe in continued investment in our workforce. We recognize that we must be forward-thinking to attract and retain the talent that will keep our economy and communities successful far into the future.

Also, we must ensure that our unique locally owned business landscape remains for generations to come.

Every step, whether small or large, is a step in the right direction and a time to forge ahead with thoughtful and collective solutions. As such, we support the incremental increase in the minimum wage to $13 per hour.

Steven Ai is president/CEO of City Mill; Jason Higa is CEO of FCH Enterprises, Inc., which includes Zippy’s.