STAND. COM. REP. 2138

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2145

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2145 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MINIMUM WAGES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide for the adjustment of the state minimum wage beginning on January 1, 2005, to provide for cost-of-living adjustments.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, and the ILWU Local 142.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Society for Human Resource Management, the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, the Hawaii Restaurant Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, Hawaii, and an individual.

Your Committee finds that the cost-of-living in Hawaii is higher than that of much of the nation. Additionally, over time, inflation has continually eroded a worker's purchasing power. Therefore, your Committee determines that action must be taken to ensure that the minimum wage amount remains current. Although the minimum wage amount was recently increased in 2002, no previous adjustment had been made since nine years prior in 1993. Your Committee further determines that in order to attempt to keep current the minimum wage amount, an automatic annual adjustment is necessary to accurately reflect the current cost-of-living in Hawaii, as well as prevent the necessity for large increases when no adjustment has been made for several years.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the reference linking the annual adjustment of the minimum wage amount to the federal cost-of-living adjustment percentage;

(2) Including a reference linking the annual adjustment of the minimum wage amount to the annual average percentage change in the Honolulu consumer price index;

(3) Prohibiting the minimum wage amount to decrease in the event of a negative annual average percentage change and instead requiring the minimum wage amount to remain at the same rate as the preceding year; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2145, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2145, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair