While lawmakers consider boosting Hawaii’s minimum wage, business owners express concerns

By Kristen Consillio

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — With the political will to raise Hawaii’s minimum wage, many are now focused on helping the lowest wage earners live a better life in paradise. But there’s mixed feelings about raising the hourly minimum between those who’d benefit and those who’d pay the price.

Natasha Cockett, a 24-year-old single mother, said she could use a boost in her wages right about now. She said her car payments are behind, while rent and other expenses are mounting.

With the current minimum wage at just over $10 an hour, workers like Cockett said: “Pretty much just living paycheck to paycheck. Everything’s just so expensive. So being on my own, that would help a lot.”

With Hawaii’s high cost of living, Cockett’s co-worker at Pancakes & Waffles in Kalihi said everyone is just struggling to get by.

“It’s not easy living over here. Minimum wage, what are we gonna do with that?,” said Hazelle Narag. “That’s nothing. That’s only going towards your bills and you don’t have nothing for yourself.”

On Monday, senate lawmakers took up the minimum wage bill — passing out of committee a proposal to raise the minimum to $12 an hour in October, $15 in 2024 and $18 in 2026.

Gov. David Ige’s also throwing his support behind a minimum wage hike.

“It’s time to make a change and we need to do this now,” Sen. Kurt Fevella said at the Senate hearing. “We cannot wait until the (end of the) pandemic because our people are on the streets. If you look at the communities nowadays, we have homeless at bus stops all over the place because they cannot afford to feed themselves.”

But as the pandemic rages on, hard-hit business owners said any more cost hikes could push them over the edge.

“It would be hard for business owners to stay afloat. Especially during times like this,” said Jeremy Jataas, co-owner of Ubae. “It’s good for the community. People want to be able to make money, people want to be able to live and stuff like that, but as far as minimum wage of course, it’s going to trickle down to us.”

And that means it’ll also trickle down to consumers, with higher prices.

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