Hawaii Salary Commission approves hefty raises for legislators, state officials

Associated Press

05-03-2025

The state Salary Commission is recommending pay raises ranging from 35% to 48% over the next six years for judges, top state executives and lawmakers, with the largest percentage pay increases proposed for members of the Hawaiʻi Legislature.
The pay raises will automatically take effect beginning July 1 unless lawmakers pass a resolution in the weeks ahead specifically rejecting the increases.
'In all, the Commission's consensus view is that to recruit and retain highly qualified public officials who can perform at the level the State and residents expect and deserve, increases of the recommended magnitudes are necessary,' according to a draft report approved by the commission Tuesday.
The proposed pay package includes an initial 32% raise for state lawmakers that would increase their salaries from $74,160 today to $97,896 effective Jan. 1, 2027.
Those raises for lawmakers would be followed by 4% pay increases in each of the following two years and another 8% pay increase on Jan. 1, 2030, for a total 48% pay increase over six years. At the end of the six years, rank-and-file lawmakers would make $114,348.
The House speaker and Senate president would see their salaries increase from $83,052 today to $128,052 over the six years.
House Minority Floor Leader Diamond Garcia, a Republican from Oʻahu, said he will introduce a resolution in the House to reject the raises, and said Republicans in the state Senate will do the same.
'For most people who I grew up with and most people in my district, $74,000 is something that somebody would dream to retire at,' Garcia said of his current salary. 'So, I just can't justify getting a six-figure salary for four months of real work.'
He said he could have supported a more modest pay increase, but 'Legislators have no real job description, there is no clock in-clock out, and they really are a part-time gig, and many of them have outside employment,' he said. 'Within five years up to $114,000 — I just can't do that.'
The seven-member Salary Commission considered awarding even more generous raises to members of the Legislature earlier this year, reasoning that serving at the state Legislature is essentially a full-time job. But the commission finally scaled back those plans.
Commission Chair Colleen Hanabusa had worried lawmakers might reject the entire pay package, which includes raises for state judges, the governor, the lieutenant governor and state department heads. If that happens, the judges and top state executives would not receive pay increases for the next six years.
'They're the ones who are going to have to vote — or not vote — is really what it comes down to,' Hanabusa said. 'We need to convince them that they don't need to vote it down.'
A handful of left-leaning House Democrats wrote to the commission Tuesday to ask them to limit the initial pay increase for lawmakers to $97,500, which is the area median income for Honolulu for a single earner.
They proposed that future pay increases be tied to the consumer price index, and the commission essentially followed that recommendation.
One of those lawmakers, Rep. Ikaika Hussey, said the group wanted smaller raises than were first proposed because hard times are coming to the state.
'The next few years are going to be incredibly painful for Hawaiʻi, because of the federal changes,' Hussey said. 'We think that the representatives of the people of Hawaiʻi need to be 100% in alignment with the people of Hawaiʻi.'
Gov. Josh Green also asked the commission to scale back on a large pay increase it had been considering for him. The Salary Commission in January considered awarding the governor a series of raises totaling 61% over six years, but Green sent word through his staff that he wanted something less extravagant.
On Tuesday the commission settled on a 15% raise for Green and Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke effective July 1, which will bring Green's salary to $217,908. That would be followed by a series of smaller 4% raises and an 8% raise in 2027, for a total pay increase for the state's top job of 39% over six years.
'Initial proposals for large salary increases over 6 years didn't seem right and didn't sit well with me, so I thank the commission for considering my input and reducing the proposed raises, given the everyday struggles of our working people to make ends meet,' Green said in a written statement Tuesday.
'Still, given any significant increases in salary for the Office of the Governor, Jaime and I plan to increase our charitable giving to children's hunger programs, programs for the homeless and other nonprofits that serve our most vulnerable residents,' Green said in the statement.
The commission is also recommending a series of raises totaling 40% to 43% over the next six years for about 95 state judges. Court officials have warned it is increasingly difficult to recruit and retain judges because the most qualified lawyers can make far more money in private practice.
Circuit Court judges would see their pay increase from $217,104 today to $327,948 in the years ahead, while District Court and Family Court judges would get a pay boost from $205,296 today to $301,776 in 2030.
The commission plan would increase the pay for the chief justice of the state Supreme Court in a series of steps ranging from 4% to 10% per year, upping it from $248,124 today to $364,752 in 2030.
Separately, an independent salary commission overseeing pay for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a semi-autonomous state agency charged with improving the lives of Native Hawaiians, voted last month to boost trustees' annual pay to $91,560. The chair of the board would make $100,308. Those raises would also kick in unless the Legislature rejects them.
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