#minimum wage

Hawaiʻi’s statewide minimum wage rate will increase to $16 per hour effective Jan. 1, 2026. This marks the third step in a series of scheduled increases, culminating in a final rate of $18 per hour on Jan. 1, 2028. In addition, the 2025 Legislature enacted Act 115, establishing a minimum civil penalty of $500 for employers who violate the Wage and Hour Law.

The state’s minimum wage will increase to $14 per hour beginning on Jan. 1, 2024. Act 114 incrementally increases the minimum wage to $16 per hour Jan. 1, 2026, and to $18 per hour Jan. 1, 2028.

The minimum wage in Hawaiʻi is currently $12 an hour, and will increase to $14 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2024. The self-sufficiency hourly wage in Maui County for a single adult was $17.84 an hour in 2020, according to the most recent DBEDT Self-Sufficiency Income Standard report published in 2021. Since that report, Johnson said, costs have only continued to rise in the County, meaning that workers’ wages are falling behind the cost of living.

Minimum wage workers prepare for Oct 1. Increase to wage. Plus information on the upcoming increase and how the “tip penalty” works in practice.

Lawmakers reached a compromise on the bill, which is less aggressive than the increase sought by the Senate. The new version of the bill incrementally increases the minimum wage to $18 by 2028.

The minimum wage bill would incrementally increase the wage starting with a step increase to $12 per hour on October 1 of this year, and culminate with an increase to $18 per hour in January of 2026.

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means passed a bill unamended that would raise the minimum wage to $18 by 2026. 

Speaker Saiki reports that “the House will advance legislation to increase the hourly minimum wage to $18, increase the food tax credit, and make the Earned Income Tax Credit refundable and permanent.”

“For too long, payday loans have trapped so many of our most financially vulnerable people in a cycle of debt that they cannot escape. This legislation not only corrects this serious injustice, but also and more importantly enables access to needed capital while providing a path to greater financial self-sufficiency and opportunity,” said Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson.

“My small business has been paying all my employees a minimum wage of $15 since October 2015. It means less money goes to my retirement, but it’s the right thing to do so my employees don’t have to work two or three jobs just to get by,” said Representative Tina Wildberger. “My heart breaks for the families who can’t afford to pay for their kids’ school lunches because the legislature hasn’t found a path to raise the minimum wage to keep up with the cost of living.”

A bill that seeks to incrementally raise the minimum wage in Hawaiʻi from the current $10.10 to $13 in 2024 will be heard in committee this week, but at least one former lawmaker is rallying for “$15 or fight.”

The measures include addressing the minimum wage, sea level rise, invasive species, school capacity and repair, and illegal vacation rentals.

Under the House bill, the minimum wage for employees not receiving employer-sponsored health insurance will gradually increase until it reaches $15 in 2024…

An overwhelming 88% of respondents said no to the question in a poll of members at the National Federation of Independent Business Hawaiʻi.

Measures intended to boost the state’s economy by increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next two years and to create a family leave plan advanced

This is Hawaiʻi’s 4th and final rise in the minimum wage since 2015. The minimum wage had stayed the same for 8 years (it remained at $7.25 from 1/07-1/15.

The Raise the Wage Act would give more than 41 million low-wage workers a raise, increasing the wages of almost 30% of the US workforce.

State Representative Kaniela Ing (D-South Maui), is sponsoring legislation to increase Hawaii’s minimum wage to $15 by 2019 and $22 by 2022.

The Maui County council will consider resolutions to approve for inclusion in the 2016 Hawaiʻi State Association of Counties Legislative Package bills that: (1) prohibit smoking in motor vehicles occupied by minors; (2) increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2019; and (3) allow persons with disabilities to indicate on their identification cards their disability.

Hawaiʻi’s minimum wage for most employers will increase to $7.75 per hour beginning on Jan. 1, 2015 under Act 82.