Posted on: Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Minimum wage hike now law

Advertiser Staff

The state minimum wage will increase next year for the first time since 1993.

The bill, hailed by social service and labor advocates and opposed by small business, was signed into law by Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono. The law raises the hourly minimum wage from $5.25 to $5.75 beginning Jan. 1 and to $6.25 on Jan. 1, 2003. Supporters of the bill said it would help the working poor, but opponents have said it would hurt small businesses and that the minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage.

Gov. Ben Cayetano also approved the state budget Friday, as well as roughly $149 million over two years for arbitrated pay raises and other collective bargaining costs for the 23,000 members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association. The HGEA raises range from 9 percent to 17 percent.

Cayetano maintained that the state could not afford the raises and that the arbitration panel had overstepped its authority in awarding them. But he reached a tentative deal with HGEA officials that he would not veto the bill if the union accepts reductions in sick leave and benefits for future hires, as well as a "two strikes" drug testing policy.

The reductions in sick leave and vacation benefits are identical to those in the United Public Workers contract. New employees would receive 12 days of vacation leave annually instead of 21 days, and 15 days of sick leave instead of 21 days.

Yesterday, Hirono signed several bills, including those that:

• Create a criminal offense of telemarketing fraud involving use of a telephone, and direct or implied claims of receiving anything of value or of recovering losses from a prize promotion. Greg Marchildon, Hawaii American Association of Retired Persons executive director, said the new law, which makes the offense a Class B felony, is among the toughest in the nation and will discourage offenders from taking advantage of the elderly.

• Prohibit the bad faith registration of domain names on the Internet, and allows punitive, compensatory and other damages to be collected in a civil suit.

• Sets standards for Hawai'i's electric companies regarding the percentage of their power that should be drawn from "renewable" sources such as solar and wind energy. The new law also requires electric utilities to provide net energy metering contracts to customers who generate electricity.