
Hawaiʻi Democrats must raise minimum wage
All Hawaiʻi workers should be able to make ends meet with one job, and it’s our legislature’s responsibility to make that a reality.

Minimum wage has stayed at $10.10 for 4 years. With high inflation, will lawmakers make any changes?
The latest state data show a single adult would need to make about $17 to $18 an hour at a full-time job to afford to live in Hawaiʻi.

House leaders ignored the needs of Hawaiʻi’s workers
They killed bills to raise the state minimum wage and to help the unemployed.

Labor leaders urge lawmakers to move minimum wage increase
Teamsters, ILWU and Local 5 leaders ask House Speaker Scott Saiki to schedule a floor vote by Wednesday.

State, city hoodwink the poor, rest of us
“Sickening, just sickening,” writes Joel Fischer, Waiʻalae resident.

House leadership bails out businesses but bails on worker relief
Unemployment insurance benefits should be exempt from Hawaiʻi income tax, but a Senate bill calling for that has unfortunately stalled.

‘They take the early bus … for us’
The moral and civic renewal we need requires a radical reframing of the terms of economic debate. Our economic foundations must be centered around people—not markets.

Saiki, House leave local workers worse off
Saiki could have written two lines that synthesized his entire commentary: “The Chamber of Commerce, which funds my campaign, didn’t want me to pass a living minimum wage for the people of Hawaiʻi. So I didn’t.”

‘Republicrats’ failed workers by not raising minimum wage
The leadership of the House of Representatives let our workers down: they include Scott Saiki, Mark Nakashima, Della Au Belatti, Dee Morikawa, Tom Brower, Aaron Johanson and Sylvia Luke.

Out of touch lawmakers failed to raise minimum wage
An increase would have shown that Democrats still fight for the interests of working families.

Hawaiʻi’s people suffer while legislators fail to pass meaningful bills
People are dying. Real people are really dying. Let’s vote for some real change in 2020, shall we?

Sine Die—my take on the 2019 session
Our state legislature, dominated by lawmakers who were elected under the flag of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, refused to pass legislation increasing the minimum wage, a top legislative priority of their own party.

Legislature did nothing to deserve pay raise
Our legislators should be embarrassed. Instead they are going to receive pay raises they don’t deserve.

Pay raise for ineffectual lawmakers is appalling
What kind of lawmakers would give themselves a large pay raise for a part-time badly done job?

Local connection: lawmakers get a raise
It’s shameful that Hawaiʻi’s legislature adjourned last week without increasing Hawaiʻi’s $10.10 minimum wage.

‘Democratic’ lawmakers fail to pass living wage
One lawmaker reportedly called the outcome “bittersweet.” No, it was just bitter.

Raise Up Hawaiʻi comments on deferment of minimum wage increase
In a press release, the coalition said it is “deeply disappointed” that the legislature failed to increase the minimum wage this year.

The call for a living wage
Raising the minimum wage is about dignity and it is about justice. It is clear from more than a century of Catholic teaching that labor is at the heart of the social question, at the heart of human dignity.