Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 777 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require private firms contracted by the State to pay covered workers a living wage of $9.43 an hour, beginning July 1, 2003, and adjusted thereafter. This measure also requires the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to implement and enforce the living wage law and to establish a temporary living wage advisory committee to review and evaluate the effectiveness of the law. This measure further provides for a repeal of the law on July 1, 2007.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Kokua Council, and a private citizen.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.

Comments on the measure were provided by the Office of Information Practices.

Your Committees find that the state government awards contracts for services each year for substantial amounts that result in the creation and maintenance of a wide variety of employment opportunities in Hawaii. These contracts are paid for by taxpayer dollars and should be used to promote the sustenance and creation of jobs that will increase consumer income, decrease levels of poverty, invigorate neighborhood business, and reduce the need for taxpayer-funded public assistance programs.

Therefore, your Committees believe that employees of private sector vendors who contract with the state government to provide certain services should earn an hourly wage that is sufficient for a family of four to live at or above the federal poverty level.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 777, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 777, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.