Gender wage disparities still persist in Hawaii

As Equal Pay Day highlights ongoing wage disparities, focus turns to the persistent gender pay gap in Hawaii. Despite progress over the decades, data shows that women in the state still earn less than men, particularly in higher-paying occupations and among certain ethnic groups.

Experts point to systemic issues, including child care costs, outdated gender norms and workplace discrimination as key factors contributing to the wage disparity.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, full-time female wage and salary workers in Hawaii had median usual weekly earnings of $902, amounting to 82.4% of the $1,095 earned by their male counterparts. The data aligns with national trends, where women earned approximately 84 cents for every dollar earned by men.

Rachel Inafuku, a lead researcher on equal pay at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, analyzed data from the American Community Survey between 2015 and 2022, and found that full-time working women in Hawaii earned 86 cents for every dollar men earned.

While the figure is slightly better than the national average, disparities remain across industries, occupations and ethnic groups.

Inafuku noted that wage gaps in Hawaii are more closely tied to occupation rather than industry.

In general, higher-paying jobs — such as surgeons, physicians and chief executive officers — exhibit a larger gender pay gap compared with lower-paying jobs. The pattern reflects broader national trends, where pay disparities tend to widen in positions with higher salaries and leadership roles.

When examining wage disparities among different ethnic groups in Hawaii, Inafuku found that Southeast Asian women experienced the smallest gender pay gap, earning 98% of what their male counterparts made. Native Hawaiian and other Polynesian women also had a relatively narrow gap, earning 94% of men’s earnings.

Despite having the highest median earnings among all ethnic groups, Japanese women still faced a significant wage disparity. In contrast, Micronesian women had the lowest median earnings overall and the largest pay gap, earning just 81% of what Micronesian men made.

The numbers suggest that while some progress has been made in narrowing pay disparities, certain ethnic groups — particularly Micro­nesian women — face systemic barriers to earning equal wages.

Research from Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin suggests that motherhood is one of the biggest factors driving the gap, even in Hawaii. Women without children earn 99 cents for every dollar earned by childless men, but mothers earn just 74 cents for every dollar earned by fathers.

“When you look at trend lines for the wages for men and women over their lifetime, they earn very similar amounts of money before the average age at a woman’s first birth,” Inafuku said. “After their first birth, you see this growing divide in income where men’s wages increase at a much faster rate.”

A major reason for this disparity is Hawaii’s high cost of child care, which can make full-time work financially unfeasible for many mothers. In households earning between $50,000 to $70,000 per year, full-time child care costs can consume nearly an entire salary, forcing women to reduce work hours, seek more flexible jobs or leave the workforce entirely.

“The lack of affordable child care options makes it challenging for both parents to fully engage in their careers while caring for their children,” Inafuku said.

Beyond day-to-day wages, the gender pay gap has long-term financial consequences for women.

Younghee Overly, public policy chair at the American Association of University Women of Hawaii, highlighted the “lifetime wage gap,” which calculates the amount of income lost due to wage disparities over a career.

“Women entering the workforce in Hawaii now stand to lose $310,040 over the course of a 40-year career, $462,000 nationally,” Overly said.

These disparities extend into retirement, where women have only 70% of the retirement savings men have. Over 62% of kupuna living in poverty are women, making economic security for aging women a growing concern.

Experts like Overly agree that closing the gender pay gap requires policy changes, employer initiatives and cultural shifts.

Some proposed solutions include equal-pay laws and greater salary transparency to prevent wage discrimination; paid family and medical leave policies to support working parents; affordable and accessible child care options, such as Hawaii’s Ready Keiki initiative, which aims to address the fact that 8,000 preschool-age children in Hawaii do not attend preschool due to affordability issues; and workplace flexibility and parental leave policies that encourage shared caregiving responsibilities between men and women.

“We need to work on equal pay, paid family and medical leave, affordable and accessible child care, improved access to reproductive health, and higher education support,” Overly said. “This would require public policies, business policies, and continue to challenge the outdated norms about gender roles.”

According to the BLS, Hawaii continues to lead the nation in union membership, with approximately 26.5% of the state’s workforce unionized in 2024 — the rate being significantly higher than the national average of 9.9%.

Hawaii’s strong union presence is a result of its long history of labor movements, especially in sectors like public services, construction and health care. Despite a decline from its peak of 29.9% in 1989, Hawaii remains the most unionized state in the U.S.

Cade Watanabe, financial secretary and treasurer at the labor union UNITE HERE! Local 5, said the “vast majority of our over 10,000 members are women and immigrants working in hospitality and food service industries.”

Watanabe explained that union organizations offer a way to address wage disparities and inequality by ensuring that wages are based on the work performed and the classification of the job.

Hawaii’s new pay transparency law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2024, requires employers with 50 or more employees to disclose salary ranges or hourly rates in job postings. The law aims to promote wage equity and transparency. However, it applies only to larger businesses, leaving over 90% of private firms in the state exempt.

Smaller companies and public-sector jobs determined through collective bargaining are not covered. While the law helps improve pay transparency for many workers, it does not address wage disparities in smaller businesses, and enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.