Hawaii Senate passes minimum wage bill to House

All but one state senator voted Friday to pass a bill that would incrementally increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2026 from the current $10.10 an hour.

Passage in the state Senate was expected given that the measure, Senate Bill 2018, was sponsored by 19 of 25 senators.

Friday’s vote was 24-1 with the lone no coming from Sen. Gil Riviere (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua).

Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Makiki-Tantalus-Manoa), the lead introducer of the bill, noted in comments during a Senate floor session Friday before voting that lawmakers have debated raising the minimum wage over the past three years and that he is hopeful of success this year.

“In recent years we have passed measures to benefit employers and to keep them in business,” he said. “We are working this year to further assist them by keeping an increase in their unemployment tax rates to a reasonable amount. It is time we provide help to the thousands of struggling low-wage earners in our state.”

Riviere said the size of the increase would be too much for too many small businesses to bear and that he would consider backing a more modest minimum wage hike.

“I think the question is, Is $18 within four years the appropriate increase?” he said. “And I must argue it is not, and it is for that reason I’m going to have to vote against this measure today.”

Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha) said the minimum wage in high-cost Hawaii has failed to keep up with inflation. He said the minimum wage in 1968 adjusted for inflation would be $24 today.

SB 2018 proposes to boost the minimum hourly wage in three steps: first to $12 on Oct. 1, then to $15 on Jan. 1, 2024, and finally to $18 on Jan. 1, 2026.

The only Republican in the Senate, Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), said he’s a big supporter of small business but that step-ups in the minimum wage to benefit workers struggling financially are long overdue.

“I urge my colleagues here today in the Senate and colleagues in the House to please support this most decent increase for our hardworking families of Hawaii,” he said.

Senate President Ron Kouchi said he was delighted about the swift action on the bill in the Senate, which included advancement by two committees Monday and Thursday only several days after this year’s legislative session began Jan. 19.

The Senate bill now will be sent to the House for consideration.

House leadership has touted a minimum wage increase as a priority, but a favored scope of an increase could differ from what the Senate has endorsed.

A bill in the House with 15 introducers or co- sponsors proposes five increases to the hourly minimum wage over five years, with the first step to $11.50 at the beginning of 2023, followed by start-of-the-year increases to $13 in 2024, $14.50 in 2025, $16 in 2026 and $18 in 2027.

The measure, House Bill 1771, has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.