The Maui County Council is backing a proposal to the state Legislature that would allow counties to set minimum wages that are above the state and federal minimum wage, reasoning that the counties know their own communities the best.

“This proposed state legislation is about home rule and acknowledging that counties are best suited to respond to the economic conditions in their own communities by setting a minimum wage that meets the needs of working people and local businesses,” Council Member Gabe Johnson, who proposed the measure, said in a news release Tuesday. “According to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the self-sufficient wage for a single adult varies between counties by more than 30 percent annually.”

It’s one of the measures the council hopes to include in the Hawaii State Association of Counties and the Maui County Council’s package to the state Legislature next year. The package requires agreement of all four county councils prior to the start of the legislation session on Jan. 18, according to the news release.

Johnson said he worked with the council’s Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee — which recommended adoption of the resolutions on the wage bill — to clarify that his proposal is for enabling legislation to empower the counties, without taking a position on increasing the minimum wage.

Act 114, the measure passed by state lawmakers and signed by the governor earlier this year, gradually raises the state minimum wage to $18 by 2028, starting with an increase from $10.10 to $12 per hour on Oct. 1.

Johnson pointed out that public testimony to the council on Tuesday indicated that this initial increase wouldn’t be sufficient for Maui County.

According to a 2021 DBEDT report on what it takes for a resident in Hawaii to be self-sufficient, a single adult in 2020 needed an annual income of $37,646, beyond what they’d make on the $12 minimum wage working a 40-hour week. This varied across the state — $40,830 in Kauai County, $38,762 in Honolulu County, $37,676 in Maui County and $31,206 in Hawaii County. Statewide, 43.1 percent of single-adult households were below the self-sufficiency level.

To make a self-sufficient income, a single adult would have to make $19.33 an hour in Kauai County, $18.35 an hour in Honolulu County, $17.84 in Maui County and $14.78 an hour in Hawaii County, the report said.

The burden is higher on single parents or households with multiple children.

In Maui County, two adults with two young children would need an hourly wage of $20.07 and an annual income of $84,794. Statewide, 34.7 percent of two-adult, two-child households had an income below the self-sufficiency level.

In Maui County, single adult with two young children would need an even higher hourly wage at $36.34 and an annual income of $76,760. Statewide, 80 percent of these households had income below the self-sufficiency line.

“County government is the closest level of government to the people, and I understand the concerns of small, local businesses regarding the raising of the minimum wage,” said Johnson, who holds the Lanai residency seat. “Let me be clear: This bill alone would not raise the minimum wage, but it will allow for debate in Maui County rather than at the State Capitol in Honolulu.”

Council Member Kelly King said she supported the proposal, describing it as “a hard sell at the state Legislature,” but saying that it could help employers find workers in what is “a very competitive market out there for employees.”

Council Chairwoman Alice Lee said she joined the unanimous support of the measure on Tuesday but that it was more about sending a message than expecting it to pass.

“This is aspirational, because I don’t believe that the state would give us that authority, but I still believe that this is a message to the state that they should revisit the numbers they established,” Lee said after the meeting.

She said the minimum wage should go up to $18 by 2024, “because like I said, we need to be able to pay people a living wage, and if you want to have a stable business or stable department, you have to be able to retain your employees, and in order to retain your employees, you have to pay them more, because costs have not gone down.”

“We want the state to look at this issue closely and to accelerate the minimum wage policy that they established last year,” Lee said.

Proposals in the Maui County Council and HSAC legislative packages are introduced in both the state Senate and the state House of Representatives. The bills are then referred to various committees, with the council chairperson typically submitting testimony in support of bills in both packages.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.