Report Title:

Minimum Wages

Description:

Raises the minimum wage. Provides for an annual automatic adjustment. Places a maximum limit on the amount of annual adjustment. Increases tip credit. Provides for sub-minimum wage for persons under 18. (HB1134 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1134

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO MINIMUM WAGES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that a job should be a bridge out of poverty, an opportunity to make a living by working. But for minimum wage workers, especially those with families, it is not. The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is twenty-four per cent lower today than it was in 1979. If the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since 1968, when it was $1.60 an hour, the minimum wage would be $8.46 an hour in 2003.

Nationally, about three and a half million workers worked full-time and year-round in 1999, yet they and their families lived in poverty. A 2001 United States Conference of Mayors study found that thirty-seven per cent of adults seeking emergency food aid were employed. Officials in sixty-three per cent of the cities surveyed identified low-paying jobs as a primary cause of hunger.

The legislature finds that the recent increases in minimum wage have not restored the lost value. Nor has the economy stood still. The State cannot boast of low unemployment when so many must work two jobs just to make ends meet.

The purpose of this Act is to raise the minimum wage.

SECTION 2. Section 387-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§387-2 Minimum wages. (a) Except as provided in section 387-9 and this section, every employer shall pay to each employee employed by the employer, wages at the rate of not less than:

[(1) $5.25 per hour beginning January 1, 1993;

(2) $5.75 per hour beginning January 1, 2002; and

(3)] (1) $6.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2003[.

The hourly wage of a tipped employee may be deemed to be increased on account of tips if the employee is paid not less than 25 cents below the applicable minimum wage by the employee's employer and the combined amount the employee receives from the employee's employer and in tips is at least 50 cents more than the applicable minimum wage.];

(2) $7.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2005; and

(3) Beginning April 1, 2006, and on an annual basis thereafter, the minimum hourly wage shall be increased by an adjustment issued on December 15 of each year, for the forthcoming year, by the department of labor and industrial relations using the per cent increase if any, rounded to the nearest 5 cents, of the most recent gross state product deflator published by the department of business, economic development, and tourism; provided that the annual increase in the minimum hourly wage shall not exceed 50 cents and that the minimum hourly wage shall never be decreased.

(b) The hourly wage of a tipped employee may be deemed to be increased on account of tips if the employee is paid not less than $1 below the applicable minimum wage by the employee's employer, and the combined amount the employee receives from the employee's employer and in tips is at least 50 cents more than the applicable minimum wage.

(c) An employer may pay each employee under the age of eighteen employed by the employer, wages that are no greater than fifteen per cent below the minimum hourly wage; provided that the minimum hourly wage for employees under the age of eighteen shall not be less than the federal minimum wage.

This subsection shall not apply to emancipated minors."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.