{"id":113461,"date":"2020-03-13T15:45:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T01:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=113461"},"modified":"2020-03-13T15:45:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T01:45:47","slug":"raising-wage-improve-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/13\/raising-wage-improve-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising minimum wage will improve health of Hawai\u02bbi residents"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Hand<\/p>\n

This editorial by Kathryn L. Braun<\/strong>, professor of public health at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa, ran in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on March 5, 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n

In four decades studying and developing strategies to fight poor health outcomes, especially in native and immigrant populations, I\u2019ve learned that you can predict a person\u2019s health much more accurately by looking at their zip code, rather than their cultural or racial backgrounds.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because health and longevity are inextricably tied to income. There is evidence all around us.<\/p>\n

People often turn to emergency rooms and hospitals because they don\u2019t have stable housing, or are homeless, and so they can\u2019t manage their health conditions because they don\u2019t have access to clean water or electricity.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kathryn Braun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here in Hawaiʻi,<\/span> people working one job at minimum wage cannot make it. So, many work two jobs. But this means they have no time to engage in physical activity or cancer screening—they are just too busy. This spells doom for our health-care system. We have a community with a high cost of living and an unlivable minimum wage. With this comes disease, disability, and lower life expectancy. That\u2019s why I believe the most important economic reform to improve the health of Hawaiʻi\u2019s<\/span> people is to raise the minimum wage to a livable level.<\/p>\n

Our own state\u2019s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism determined that the “self-sufficiency standard” for a single person with no children was $16.90 an hour in 2018. In 2020, that\u2019s over $17 an hour.<\/p>\n

Currently, our state\u2019s minimum wage falls far short of that. At $10.10, Hawaiʻi\u2019s<\/span> full-time minimum wage workers earn only $21,000 a year. The minimum wage bill that\u2019s currently moving through the state Capitol would raise the wage to $13 by 2024. For a full-time worker, $13 an hour is only $27,000 a year. That\u2019s not enough to live on now, let alone four years from now. Such inadequate wages will continue to contribute to the homelessness crisis and poor health indicators in our state.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not speaking alone. Experts across the globe find that “social determinants of health”—such as income, employment and education level—are the most important set of modifiable factors that influence health. They are much more important than genetics. The effects can be dramatic. Neighborhoods separated by just a couple of miles can see as much as a 25-year difference in life expectancy. Without a truly livable minimum wage in Hawaiʻi,<\/span> we are just going to get more and more sick people.<\/p>\n

Some people in Hawaiʻi<\/span> are opposed to raising the minimum wage because of costs. However, Hawaiʻi<\/span> is paying in other ways. Without a livable minimum wage, we must cover the cost of health disparities, the cost of homelessness, and the cost of unnecessary hospital admissions.<\/p>\n

As a public health professor and researcher, I know that many of the health problems in our most vulnerable populations can be traced to poverty. I urge lawmakers to raise Hawaiʻi\u2019s<\/span> minimum wage to a true living wage to help improve the health of our residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An editorial written by Kathryn L. Braun, professor of public health at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa, printed in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on March 5, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[241,449,596,9],"class_list":["post-113461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-public-health","tag-public-health-sciences","tag-myron-b-thompson-school-of-social-work","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t