As chair of the Honolulu Salary Commission, I would like to clarify some of the factors the commission considered in setting last year’s fiscal year 2024 salaries, and now currently in its fiscal year 2025 deliberations — specifically in regards to the Honolulu City Council members.

Bit of background

The Salary Commission is a volunteer body established by the Honolulu Charter in 1985. In accordance with the law, the commission makes recommendations for salaries for about 50 city employees, including the mayor, Cabinet and Council members, based on “adequate compensation for work performed” and to preserve a “sensible relationship” with salaries of other Honolulu city employees. Data, studies and public hearings are utilized to determine what is “adequate” and “sensible.”

The data

Council member salaries have been frozen 19 times over the past 33 years. The result was a disparity in wages relative to the salaries of other city employees. The commission also conducted a professional national survey study. The results revealed that across nine comparable city jurisdictions, Honolulu City Council members were underpaid by up to 51%. In Hawaii, Honolulu Council member positions were paid less than their counterparts in Maui and Hawaii counties, despite larger constituencies and city operations.

The commission’s recommendations made last year were corrections to adjust Council salaries to address this. Even with last year’s increases, the salary study revealed that Council members are still at least 8% underpaid compared to other jurisdictions.

Part-time or full-time?

There is nothing in the City Charter that establishes the Council member positions as part-time. The reality is that Council members work over 40 hours per week, reaching 60 to 80 hours. Besides general responsibilities such as Council and committee meetings, Council members are on-duty 24/7, responsive to their 120,000-plus constituencies. They are responsible for the budget and policies for this city, are expected to respond to demands for solutions, similar in the way of city division managers.

If these positions are part-time, meaning 20 hours a week, then Council members should not be expected to work beyond midday Wednesday, and not expected to be available for evening or weekend meetings or any number of community events or emergencies. Council members are the public face for their district. These positions endure harsh scrutiny, criticism and even mockery despite the long hours, dedication and effort that they commit, which may impact their health, mental health, and safety and that of their ohana.

Parity with other city workers

In addressing the legal obligations in law, the Salary Commission is essentially left to index legislative branch leadership positions to executive branch leadership positions. Last year, after considering multiple options, the commission recommended to correspond the City Council positions to the bottom of the pay range for “EM-08” managers for a salary of $113,304, with an additional $10,000 for the chair. This preserves a sensible relationship of the Council members’ salaries with those of other city employees performing similarly high-level duties with high-level responsibilities to the general public. This is still far below what the mayor, city department directors, department deputies, and even what many civil service administrators earn.

For fiscal year 2025 salaries, the commission continues to support that Council members’ salaries should be indexed to the EM-08 civil service position to be consistent with the principles of adequate compensation for work performed.

The Honolulu Salary Commission is recommending indexing the salaries for the Council members at the current year EM-08 starting level salary, but will impose a benefit reduction, resulting in an increase in salary by $3,408 or 3%.

The total impact to the city budget for the Council members’ salary increases for fiscal 2025 will be approximately $30,688 for all nine members.

Malia Espinda chairs the Honolulu Salary Commission.