Posted on: Friday, April 29, 2005
Minimum wage bill awaiting final votes
| • | State set to decide whether to boost tax to pay for rail |
By Gordon Y.K. Pang and Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Hawai'i's minimum wage would move from $6.25 to $6.75 per hour next year and $7.25 in 2007 under a bill now on the brink of advancing out of the state Legislature.
Senate and House lawmakers agreed to the plan in conference committee yesterday and the proposal will be up for final votes in both chambers on Tuesday. Gov. Linda Lingle, who wants any increase in the minimum wage coupled with a break in unemployment insurance contributions for businesses, said yesterday it is premature to say if she would veto the bill.
Today is the deadline for lawmakers to get bills ready for final votes this session. Among the more significant decisions yesterday, lawmakers reached agreement in conference on expanding public access to information on sex offenders.
The minimum wage bill advanced without either a reduction in employer contributions to unemployment insurance or an increase in the tip credit that allows an employer to pay less to workers who receive tips, two issues pushed by Lingle.
Senate Labor Chairman Brian Kanno, D-19th (Kapolei, Makakilo, Waikele), said lawmakers are hopeful Lingle will let the bill become law. "One of her first stated concerns for the session was looking out for those who are making the least amount of wages and so our feeling is that a moderate increase in wages of 50 cents and 50 cents will help those on the lower end of the wage scale," he said.
House Labor Chairman Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), agreed. "I'm not so sure she's going to veto it because this is a very modest increase, I think, in the minimum wage," he said. "This year, everyone believes that they want to help those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Probably the very best way you can help anyone is by paying the guys at the bottom ... a wage that reflects the increase in inflation."
Lingle told reporters she is holding out hope that lawmakers will pass legislation that will give businesses a three-year break on the contributions they must make to the unemployment insurance fund, a proposal that has so far fallen on deaf ears.
"They could still do something with unemployment insurance separately," the governor said. "Even if they don't link them in a specific bill, they should both come up together. So I'll just wait and see what finally comes out of the session."
The administration has argued that the unemployment insurance trust fund has accumulated nearly $400 million because the robust state economy has swelled the job ranks. But Caldwell and other lawmakers don't want to see the state forced to increase unemployment insurance payments during a downward cycle to meet the needs of a higher number of jobless.
Caldwell said he attempted to address concerns raised by restaurateurs who felt any minimum wage increase should also be accompanied by a plan to increase the existing 25-cent tip credit, the amount an employer can lower the hourly pay of waiters and others who are eligible for a tip.
The minimum wage plan that moved out of the Senate included a 50-cent increase in the tip credit, to 75 cents an hour. Caldwell had initially sought a $1 tip credit but that was shot down before the House moved out its proposal.
He said yesterday that if there were to be an increase in the tip credit, House colleagues would have wanted a higher minimum wage than what is currently in the bill.
The public, meanwhile, will likely soon have Internet access to photographs, home addresses and other information on more convicted sex offenders. The agreement between Democratic leaders and the attorney general's office would limit public access to information on some lesser offenders to the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center and police stations. Sex offenders would also be able to petition the courts to remove their information from the Internet after being on the registry for 40 years for the worst offenders and after a shorter time for lesser offenders.
The state Supreme Court had struck down a previous Internet Web site because sex offenders did not get a court hearing before their information was posted. The state established a hearing process but only a fraction of the state's more than 2,150 sex offenders are now on the state's Web site. Voters approved a constitutional amendment in November allowing the Legislature to grant more public access to the information.
"It was a good compromise that was reached," said Rep. Sylvia Luke, D-26th (Punchbowl, Pacific Heights, Nu'uanu Valley), the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, who initially had reservations.
Attorney General Mark Bennett also praised the agreement as collaborative and non-partisan. "I think that it gives our citizens an opportunity to protect themselves and their children from dangerous sex offenders," Bennett said.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or reach them at 525-8070.
