For minimum wage earners in Hawaii, living on these beautiful islands in the South Pacific is gradually getting easier as the state phases in an earning increase that is taking the minimum wage from $7.75 per hour to $10.10 over four years.
Hawaii was one of the first three states, along with Connecticut and Maryland, to meet President Barack Obama's goal of increasing the minimum wage across the country to this rate.
Hawaii had previously adopted the federally mandated minimum of $7.25 per hour before the increases began.
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This will help Hawaii's lowest income earners reach more of a sustainable living wage, which
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie told USA Today "is not a minimum wage, it's a survival wage. And in today's world, that minimum wage is not a survival wage, certainly in Hawaii."
Living costs in Hawaii are higher than in the Lower 48 because nearly everything has to be shipped to the islands by sea or airplane. And while having a full-time minimum wage job in Hawaii will keep a person above the federal poverty level, it is still not considered to be a living wage.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage calculator, in Hawaii a person needs to earn at least $9.30 or $14.66 depending on the island to live in relative comfort. And even with the minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour across the state, this will still not make up for the gap between minimum wage and living wage in many parts of Hawaii, including Honolulu, where the living wage is calculated at $14.66 for a single adult and at $28.14 for one adult raising one child.
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