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New minimum wage law is the bare minimum

If you’re looking for a job, I may know about one for you. Here’s the deal: You’ll be putting in 40 hours a week. It’s hard work most of the time and it’s hot, repetitious and sometimes dirty work. The job pays minimum wage. That means if you stick it out for a full year, you will have earned a total of $21,000.

That’s how much you can make at $10.10 per hour under Hawaii’s brand-new minimum wage law. It just went into effect on Jan. 1. Lucky you! That’s $21,000 a year, and that’s before taxes and deductions for health insurance.

With Hawaii’s cost of living, that’s a minimum wage, all right. It’s a bare minimum wage. Let’s get serious. Let’s start thinking about what’s good for us — for all of us — as a community.

Other states have done it — raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour — and there was no loss of jobs. In fact, more people had more money to spend! It’s time for Hawaii to step up to the plate and do what’s right.

Jim Loomis

Haiku

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