Gender wage disparities still persist in Hawaii
As Equal Pay Day highlights ongoing wage disparities, focus turns to the persistent gender pay gap in Hawaii. Despite progress over the decades, data shows that women in the state still earn less than men, particularly in higher-paying occupations and among certain ethnic groups.
Experts point to systemic issues, including child care costs, outdated gender norms and workplace discrimination as key factors contributing to the wage disparity.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, full-time female wage and salary workers in Hawaii had median usual weekly earnings of $902, amounting to 82.4 % of the $1, 095 earned by their male counterparts. The data aligns with national trends, where women earned approximately 84 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Rachel Inafuku, a lead researcher on equal pay at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, analyzed data from the American Community Survey between 2015 and 2022, and found that full-time working women in Hawaii earned 86 cents for every dollar men earned.
While the figure is slightly better than the national average, disparities remain across industries, occupations and ethnic groups.
Inafuku noted that wage gaps in Hawaii are more closely tied to occupation rather than industry.
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In general, higher-paying jobs—such as surgeons, physicians and chief executive officers—exhibit a larger gender pay gap compared with lower-paying jobs. The pattern reflects broader national trends, where pay disparities tend to widen in positions with higher salaries and leadership roles.
When examining wage disparities among different ethnic groups in Hawaii, Inafuku found that Southeast Asian women experienced the smallest gender pay gap, earning 98 % of what their male counterparts made. Native Hawaiian and other Polynesian women also had a relatively narrow gap, earning 94 % of men's earnings.
Despite having the highest median earnings among all ethnic groups, Japanese women still faced a significant wage disparity. In contrast, Micronesian women had the lowest median earnings overall and the largest pay gap, earning just 81 % of what Micronesian men made.
The numbers suggest that while some progress has been made in narrowing pay disparities, certain ethnic groups—particularly Micro nesian women—face systemic barriers to earning equal wages.
Research from Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin suggests that motherhood is one of the biggest factors driving the gap, even in Hawaii. Women without children earn 99 cents for every dollar earned by childless men, but mothers earn just 74 cents for every dollar earned by fathers.
'When you look at trend lines for the wages for men and women over their lifetime, they earn very similar amounts of money before the average age at a woman's first birth, ' Inafuku said. 'After their first birth, you see this growing divide in income where men's wages increase at a much faster rate.'
A major reason for this disparity is Hawaii's high cost of child care, which can make full-time work financially unfeasible for many mothers. In households earning between $50, 000 to $70, 000 per year, full-time child care costs can consume nearly an entire salary, forcing women to reduce work hours, seek more flexible jobs or leave the workforce entirely.
'The lack of affordable child care options makes it challenging for both parents to fully engage in their careers while caring for their children, ' Inafuku said.
Beyond day-to-day wages, the gender pay gap has long-term financial consequences for women.
Younghee Overly, public policy chair at the American Association of University Women of Hawaii, highlighted the 'lifetime wage gap, ' which calculates the amount of income lost due to wage disparities over a career.
'Women entering the workforce in Hawaii now stand to lose $310, 040 over the course of a 40-year career, $462, 000 nationally, ' Overly said.
These disparities extend into retirement, where women have only 70 % of the retirement savings men have. Over 62 % of kupuna living in poverty are women, making economic security for aging women a growing concern.
Experts like Overly agree that closing the gender pay gap requires policy changes, employer initiatives and cultural shifts.
Some proposed solutions include equal-pay laws and greater salary transparency to prevent wage discrimination ; paid family and medical leave policies to support working parents ; affordable and accessible child care options, such as Hawaii's Ready Keiki initiative, which aims to address the fact that 8, 000 preschool-age children in Hawaii do not attend preschool due to affordability issues ; and workplace flexibility and parental leave policies that encourage shared caregiving responsibilities between men and women.
'We need to work on equal pay, paid family and medical leave, affordable and accessible child care, improved access to reproductive health, and higher education support, ' Overly said. 'This would require public policies, business policies, and continue to challenge the outdated norms about gender roles.'
According to the BLS, Hawaii continues to lead the nation in union membership, with approximately 26.5 % of the state's workforce unionized in 2024—the rate being significantly higher than the national average of 9.9 %.
Hawaii's strong union presence is a result of its long history of labor movements, especially in sectors like public services, construction and health care. Despite a decline from its peak of 29.9 % in 1989, Hawaii remains the most unionized state in the U.S.
Cade Watanabe, financial secretary and treasurer at the labor union UNITE HERE ! Local 5, said the 'vast majority of our over 10, 000 members are women and immigrants working in hospitality and food service industries.'
Watanabe explained that union organizations offer a way to address wage disparities and inequality by ensuring that wages are based on the work performed and the classification of the job.
Hawaii's new pay transparency law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2024, requires employers with 50 or more employees to disclose salary ranges or hourly rates in job postings. The law aims to promote wage equity and transparency. However, it applies only to larger businesses, leaving over 90 % of private firms in the state exempt.
Smaller companies and public-sector jobs determined through collective bargaining are not covered. While the law helps improve pay transparency for many workers, it does not address wage disparities in smaller businesses, and enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.
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'The history of this university, as well as the greater state of Arizona university system, has long failed our Native communities and Tribal Nations,' the letter states. Failures outlined in the letter include insufficient scholarship support, the inability to hire Native faculty and the failure to provide a space for Native students to learn and become strong citizens of their respective tribal nations. 'Despite these failures, we remain — not only are we still here, but we are here in larger numbers than at any point in the recorded history of the university,' the students wrote. In the fall 2024 semester, there were more than 2,000 Native American students at UofA, accounting for 3.6% of the student population. NASA was founded in 1989 and has been one of the long-standing cultural centers at UofA. However, the university has not consistently supported it, as the center faced plans for consolidation in 1993, 2016 and 2023. 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Before he was fired, Juan had been at NASA since 2019, and many Indigenous students credit him with helping to make it a safe space. He started as a program coordinator and later became the center's interim director in 2022, a position he held off and on until he was offered the position permanently in January 2024. As a first-generation college student with a bachelor's and master's degree, Juan said it was a dream job to contribute to the success of Indigenous students. Coming into NASA, he said his priority was rebuilding the relationship with students because of the lingering effects of high turnover. ' I felt a responsibility as an O'odham person at the University of Arizona to be that consistency for them,' he said. 'That's what's kept me here this whole time, seeing what these students have gone through.' Indigenous students at UofA often have to advocate for themselves and serve as their own support system, which can lead to burnout, Juan said. 'I've seen a lot of harm to students,' he said, adding that students constantly tell him how tired they are of sharing their experiences with a university that does not listen. When he stepped into the director's role, Juan said he became a fierce advocate for them. Even after all these obstacles, he said it's incredible to see Indigenous students succeed. The student letter sent to the university stated that NASA is the center of campus life for all Indigenous students at UofA. 'Under Julian's leadership, there are more large- and small-scale events at the university to support our Native students and ensure our retention and graduation in the degrees we seek,' the letter stated. UofA doctoral student William Carson, a tribal member of Ohkay Owingeh, helped put together the student letter condemning the university's decision to fire Juan and merge NASA with NAI. Under former directors, Carson said that students did not utilize the space as often, but that changed drastically when Juan took over. NASA is located on the second floor of the Robert L. Nugent Building at UofA. 'It's a place people like to be because people feel comfortable there,' he said, because in reality, NASA is a few offices and an open commons area. ' That is entirely the result of the work that Julian has done, empowering students and making people feel wanted there.' Carson recently defended his dissertation, which involved research with NASA, NAI, and the Office of Native American Advancement & Tribal Engagement. The results of his study showed a strong connection between Indigenous students and NASA. Carson said that when he presented his findings to NAI and NAATE leadership, he emphasized that any outreach efforts related to Indigenous students at UofA should go through NASA. 'This is a place people trust. They trust what Julian is doing,' he said, adding that he'll never forget how dismissive Dysart and other leaders were of that information. ' They simply acted like I never mentioned NASA once in the meeting.' NASA is the only space on campus at UofA for Indigenous students, Carson said, and now that NAI is running it, he said it's certain that some students will stop going to the center. Little Owl-Ignacio said it makes her emotional to think about NASA after the news of the merger and Juan being fired. She said it was amazing to see all the Indigenous students at UofA 'blossom and grow' because they were able to find a home, friends and a community within the cultural center. The outpouring of support has deeply impacted Juan, who said it has made him emotional to see all the people who have shown up for him. Juan said that the students who sent the letter also reached out, asking how they could support and protect him. He admitted that it was hard to hear because he felt it should be him protecting them. 'But when I saw the list of support, I was like, 'Dang, this is beautiful to see,'' he said. Despite being among the several cultural resource center directors fired on May 27, Juan said that his dismissal was not solely a result of the university's drastic shifts in diversity, equity and inclusion policies prompted by the Trump administration's executive orders banning them. Instead, he said, it was retaliation for his ongoing advocacy for the safety of Indigenous students at the university. Tension has been escalating between Indigenous students and university leadership over the past year. From Juan's perspective, things began to deteriorate last year, following the retirement of Karen Francis-Begay, who served as the assistant vice provost for NAI from 2020 to 2023. Dysart took on the role of vice provost in July 2024. Juan said the vice provost position at NAI was established in response to 'student demands and advocacy' following an incident involving former UofA President Robert C. Robbins, who made offensive comments in front of a group of Indigenous students in 2019. Juan said the position was supposed to 'handle all the top-level stuff and to ensure students, staff and faculty are being supported.' However, Juan said that Indigenous students began to express their concerns about Dysart the month after she started in the position. According to Juan, one Indigenous student told him that Dysart made derogatory comments about tribal colleges and universities that made the student uncomfortable. Dysart allegedly said that tribal colleges and universities inadequately prepare their students for the rigor of a Western university, and that it's not UofA's fault that those students don't succeed, but a failure of the institutions they transferred from. Juan said that the student shared their concern with him because they believed those comments should not be made by someone whose job was to support Indigenous students. And more stories about disrespectful interactions with Dysart came in from students, his staff and other employees. Juan said he shared his concerns with his supervisor, who recommended that he raise them with the then-interim provost, Ronald Marx. Juan's biggest concern, he told Marx, was a pattern of Dysart intimidating or silencing Native women. Marx asked to meet with the students, Juan said, but many were afraid to come forward. 'They are afraid of retaliation if they find out that they're the ones who raise concerns about her,' Juan said. 'They are afraid for their future careers as lawyers or even their academic careers.' The university never responded to the concerns Juan shared, he said. The most public student safety concern occurred in February during the annual Tribal Leaders Summit & Student Engagement event, when Indigenous law student Jacquelyn Francisco attempted to speak but was physically blocked from the microphone by Dysart and another school official. After being blocked from the podium, Francisco stood in front of it and shared her experience as an Indigenous student, and told the tribal leaders in attendance how the university quietly deleted language in its official land acknowledgment — without consulting tribes and students. After the summit, Francisco said that the university started referring to her as a 'disgruntled student' who was not invited to speak during the event and should not have been on stage. Francisco countered that Dysart invited her to the event, and even asked if Francisco could share the details with her network. The invitation requested students to share their experiences at UofA. Francisco, who is Diné and Jicarilla Apache, is a Navajo Nation law fellow at the university's James E. Rogers College of Law and a leader in the Indigenous student law community. She said she had previously asked Dysart, who is a law professor, for support and advice, but said that Dysart frequently made ignorant comments that criticized Indigenous UofA students and demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of the support those students may require. Before the conflict at the summit, Francisco said she and other Indigenous law students shared their concerns about Dysart with Marx. The students never received any response from the university administration, and Francisco said she wasn't surprised when Dysart tried to stop her from speaking. She said she does not believe Dysart has the best interests of students in mind and is concerned about the future of Indigenous students attending UofA. Neither the university nor Dysart have spoken to Francisco since the incident or addressed it publicly. Little Owl-Ignacio was at the tribal summit event in February, where she said she overheard Dysart threaten to call security on Francisco. Dysart's actions caused harm not only to Francisco, Little Owl-Ignacio said, but also to the other Indigenous students who witnessed them. Even after students repeatedly said that they felt unsafe around Dysart, the university still chose to put NASA under her leadership. 'It completely ignores the student safety concerns and it ignores their well-being, something that NASA has always been committed to under Julian's former leadership,' Little Owl-Ignacio said. 'He made sure that the well-being of the students was always at the forefront and this decision doesn't reflect that.' Following the confrontation at the summit, Juan said that students continued to express to him concerns about NAI and said they did not feel safe around Dysart. Juan said he believes his advocacy for students amidst the tension between NAI and students led to his termination. The tipping point, he said, occurred during NASA's Feast Friday event in April. Juan was in a meeting in his office while students shared a meal during the event, but he noticed multiple students looking into his office, visibly distressed. After Juan noticed Dysart in the doorway, along with one of her coworkers and two Pascua Yaqui Council members, he apologized and asked Dysart to leave due to student safety concerns. Juan said she responded with confusion, telling him that she did not know what he meant, even though he had sent her emails about those concerns. She answered that it was an open campus and that she was free to go where she pleased, but that they should have a conversation about the concerns with university administrators. Juan agreed to the conversation, but insisted that she leave. She eventually did. Juan said he then apologized to the Pascua Yaqui Council members, who stayed to see the NASA center and interact with students at the event. At the beginning of May, Marx emailed Juan about the unwelcoming reception that Dysart received. 'The University's senior leadership, including me, has emphasized the importance of collaboration among all units that support student well-being and success,' Marx wrote in the memo. 'Such collaboration is required between NASA and the Office of Native American Initiatives.' Marx requested that Juan write a formal apology letter to the Pascua Yaqui council members who witnessed the interaction and instructed him to arrange a meeting between NASA and NAI to begin coordination efforts. Once Juan read the memo, he said he knew his position was at risk. Juan said he met with Hatcher, the vice provost overseeing Campus Community Connections, to discuss these concerns and to arrange a meeting date for the two offices. In this meeting, Juan said that Hatcher offered to allow him to bring his tribal leaders from the Tohono O'odham Nation to support him. Hatcher agreed to the meeting arrangements and requested that Juan set up the meeting. But Juan was fired before that could happen. His termination letter said that he was being dismissed for not fulfilling his duties, including failing to write the apology letter to the Pascua Yaqui council members and meeting with NAI. Juan said he had apologized to the council members in an email before the request, and he emailed a draft of a formal apology letter to Hatcher. When he was fired on May 27, he said he was attempting to finalize dates that worked with his tribal leader's calendars for the meeting between NAI and NASA. He has no doubts that his termination is a clear act of retaliation for standing up for students. 'I t hurts because I want (students) to be okay and I want (students) to be safe,' Juan said. 'I'm afraid for them under this new model. I am afraid for them because the university has shown they're not going to hold this person accountable.' Dysart has been allowed to 'physically silence a student without repercussion,' he added. With NASA moving under NAI, Juan said that the office does not have the capacity to support Indigenous students at UofA or the emotional understanding to take their concerns seriously. He said he wants people to know the whole story because he does not want the university to 'create their own narrative,' and he intends to challenge his termination and has provided documentation to support his case to the university's human resources office. The Arizona Mirror reached out to Dysart and the university about student concerns and Juan's termination. Dysart did not respond. The university refused to comment on personnel matters. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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Miller noted the wind at Sutter Health can be problematic, changing the trajectories of fly balls at different points of the day. The A's lead the majors with 96 home runs allowed, 55 at home. But as Miller said, 'The other team is pitching in the same environment. We don't really have an excuse to fall back on.' Especially when the recent failures of the bullpen extend to the road, where the A's have lost 11 straight games. Through May 13, the A's 'pen ranked 27th in the majors with a 5.04 ERA and 24th with a .750 opponents' OPS — not good. But their numbers in the 19 games before the past two were astonishingly bad. An ERA of 8.19 (Colorado was next worst at 5.27). An opponents' OPS of .966 (Colorado was next worst at .852). The last two nights, Kotsay has used openers, trying to build the confidence of struggling relievers by inserting them at the start of a game rather than in a late-inning, high-leverage situation. The A's grew concerned about their middle-inning relief early in the season, realizing if they fell behind, they would struggle to keep games close. Injuries to veteran relievers José Leclerc and T.J. McFarland left the 'pen with too little experience. And the back-end types who enjoyed early success — Grant Holman and Justin Sterner, Tyler Ferguson and Miller — all began to slump, seemingly at once. Holman and Sterner are in their first full seasons, Ferguson and Miller their second. 'It's not easy to come as a minor-league reliever and have immediate impact or success in the big leagues, and continued success,' Kotsay said. 'You look at a lot of the relievers, they obviously go up and down early in their careers before they establish themselves. Relying on those types of arms is tough.' Miller, 26, is the most established and accomplished of the group, but his 10.38 ERA in May included a blown save at home against Philadelphia on May 24, when he allowed a game-tying, ninth-inning homer by Max Kepler. The A's went on to lose in 11 innings 9-6. MAX KEPLER! — Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 25, 2025 'At least from a bullpen perspective, when we do have a chance to win a game, we're squeezing a little bit too tight,' Miller said. 'Everybody knows about the streak of games we've lost. It's, 'Hey, let end it tonight.' We've played a lot of good teams, too. And our mistakes have been magnified, for sure.' Advertisement One person with the club was only half-joking Wednesday that the only way for the A's to win a game right now might be by a score of 20-18. But with first baseman Nick Kurtz and third baseman Miguel Andújar on the injured list, even the A's offense, featuring the American League Rookie of the Month for May, shortstop Jacob Wilson, is diminished. To think, the A's on May 5 were 20-16, one game behind Seattle in the AL West. Wilson and first baseman Tyler Soderstrom, two former first-round picks, were thriving. The team's top pitching prospect, Gunnar Hoglund, had just made his major-league debut. Kurtz's debut would come at the end of the month. The relatively fast start, following last year's 32-32 record after the All-Star Game, provides a measure of reassurance — 'Out of the gates, we played well,' Kotsay said. 'That wasn't that long ago, really.' McFarland, who produced eight straight scoreless appearances before suffering a left adductor strain, is on a rehabilitation assignment. But Leclerc, a $10 million free-agent addition, is not expected to return from a lat strain until the second half. Nothing sabotages a team like a bad bullpen. And the A's, facing the prospect of at least 243 'home' games over three seasons at Sutter Health Park, were always going to be in something of a precarious state. The Rays can rationalize their situation, knowing they will play only one season in Tampa. The A's needed to succeed at home early to build confidence and reduce the chances of their conditions becoming a distraction. Instead, they lost their first four games at Sutter Health and six of their first seven. Not to mention 13 of their last 15. The A's position-player group is the third-youngest in the league. Their pitching staff is the 12th youngest. A number of players surely are happy to be in the majors, even if they're playing in a minor-league park. They won't complain publicly, at least not yet. Neither will Kotsay and his coaches. No one wants to come off as entitled. Still, Kotsay is in the most difficult position of any manager, and not just because his bullpen is a mess. Advertisement The first year at Sutter Health figured to be tolerable for the players and staff, as long as the team showed improvement. The second year projected as perhaps the most difficult, with the move to Las Vegas still a good bit away. And in the third year, if indeed that is the last year, the team could have adopted the same mindset as the Rays — deal with it, and we'll be out of here soon. The A's meltdown makes everything more challenging. If the meltdown was solely the product of bad baseball, that would be one thing. But it's also the product of a team put in a terrible position by its owner and league, a team being asked to play at a disadvantage and act as if everything is normal. 'We're just continually trying to show up and work each day and get back to that team we were at the start of the year,' Miller said. 'It's not like we didn't show that it was possible.' Oh, it's possible. But the margin of error was always going to be thin. If the A's fail to regain their equilibrium, no one should be surprised if their frustrations mount. And maybe even boil over. (Photo of Mason Miller, A's manager Mark Kotsay and other A's players: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
