Hawaii's minimum wage hikes
Hawaii Governor Ben Cayetano, a Democrat, wants to raise his state’s minimum wage. The federal government (the Clinton administration) is already planning a national minimum wage hike. But Hawaii Democrats are not satisfied with another federal minimum wage hike. They want to go even further than the feds. They want to go even further, even though Hawaii’s present state minimum wage is already higher than the present federal rate of $5.15 an hour.
In fact, the Hawaii Senate already has a minimum wage bill up for debate. This latest minimum wage bill proposes to raise the Hawaii rate to $7.50 an hour by July 1, 2000, $8,50 an hour by July 1, 2001, and, finally, to $9.50 an hour by July 1, 2002. That is a minimum wage increase for three consecutive years, regardless of the state of the Hawaii economy, which is currently behind the mainland level.
As a competing tourism destination, we in the CNMI have to take our hats off to Governor Ben Cayetano and the rest of the Hawaii Democrats. Raise away! Why stop there, at a mere $9.50 an hour?
Raise the Hawaii minimum wage rate to $10 an hour right away. Then make it $20 an hour in 2001, $30 an hour in 2002, and $40 an hour in 2003.
Such moves should certainly lure lasting investments into the floundering Hawaii economy. It should also lower the Hawaii unemployment rate and reduce its inflation.
Why, with a minimum wage of $20 an hour, a McDonald’s happy meal would probably cost about $8 an order, maybe more. I am sure Japanese tourists would rather spend more money in Hawaii that way.
With these type of misguided policies, our local businesses should really make more political campaign contributions to Hawaii Democrats, so that they can implement even more uncompetitive policies which would directly benefit many businesses in the CNMI.
The Hawaii state leadership has already done us an enormous favor by stubbornly refusing to allow casino gambling in the Aloha state. Such a move would, of course, put a huge dent in the CNMI economy, as more Asian tourists flock to try their luck in Hawaii.
As the situation stands today, Hawaii continues to perform a great service for the CNMI. Higher taxes, zoning laws, more cumbersome regulations, protectionist Hawaiians, dominant socialistic Democrats, no casino gambling, ever higher minimum wages–all things considered, we in the CNMI have nothing to fear in the way of Hawaii tourism and business competition.
