For Immediate Release
January 22, 2001
Contact: Rep. Roy Takumi
Telephone: 586-6170



TAKUMI BILL SEEKS END TO 'WORKING POVERTY'



Contractors paid with State tax dollars should be required to pay their full-time employees a living wage -- an amount that is above the federal poverty level for a family of four, according to Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Waipahu-Pearl City). House Bill 36, introduced last week by Takumi, would require companies who receive state contracts to pay full-time employees to do just that.

“Our tax dollars should not be used to create or subsidize working poverty,” said Takumi. “If we want families to be independent and self-sufficient, we need to pay them a living wage. It makes no sense to give a contract to a company which then pays its workers wages so low that they qualify for public assistance."

Across the United States, there are more than 50 living wage ordinances in effect that are helping people improve their living standards without overburdening public funds, or harming the local economy, Takumi said. He added that by putting purchasing power in the hands of workers rather than state programs, we encourage greater consumer spending in the local economy.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services revises calculations of the federal poverty level. In 1998, the federal poverty level in Hawaii was $18,920, or $9.10 per hour for a full-time, year-round employee. Last year, it was $9.43. A recent study by the State Legislative Reference Bureau showed that in 1998 and 1999, approximately 583 workers were paid below the hypothetical Hawaii living wage.

“The number of employees involved is not especially large," Takumi said, "The issue is one of having the correct public policy, one that says it is not in the public interest to allow private companies to keep families in poverty by paying substandard wages,” said Takumi.

Takumi, chair of the Higher Education Committee and a member of the Democratic Majority, said the bill makes a strong statement of support for Hawaii's working families, a key theme for House Democrats in 2001.


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