STAND. COM. REP. NO. 699

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 331

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 331, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase the minimum wage over time and then adjust it annually in accordance with changes to the consumer price index.

 

     More specifically, this measure changes the minimum wage to:

 

     (1)  $8.25 per hour beginning July 1, 2013;

 

     (2)  $8.75 per hour beginning July 1, 2014;

 

     (3)  $9.25 per hour beginning July 1, 2015; and

 

     (4)  An amount adjusted in accordance with changes to the consumer price index beginning July 1, 2016, and every year thereafter.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Hawaii State AFL-CIO; Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans; American Income Life Insurance Company; Faith Action for Community Equity; Hawaii Catholic Conference; Pride at Work Hawaii; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii; Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; Duke's Waikiki; ILWU Local 142; Hawaii Government Employees Association; TS Restaurants; and seventeen concerned individuals.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Food Industry Association; Ken's House of Pancakes; Meadow Gold Dairies Hawaii; Papyrus, Inc.; Retail Merchants of Hawaii; Tamura Super Market; Aloha Petroleum, Ltd.; Hawaii Foam Products, LLC; Minit Stop Holdings, LLC; KYD, Inc.; Kauai Chamber of Commerce; the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii; and six concerned individuals.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development.

 

     Your Committee finds that increases to the minimum wage are necessary and should ultimately be tied to the consumer price index for the Honolulu region.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Specifying that the consumer price index to be applied is the consumer price index (CPI-W) for the Honolulu region;

 

     (2)  Changing the amounts that determine whether a tipped employee may be paid below minimum wage to unspecified amounts;

 

     (3)  Changing the beginning date of any minimum wage increase from July 1 to January 1; and

 

     (4)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 331, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 331, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair