Labor

The law eliminates the state’s lowest tax brackets and lowers the rates for all tax brackets. The cuts will take place in phases over a seven-year period and will cost the state $1.3 billion in yearly revenue.

UHERO research economist Rachel Inafuku said children are a main reason for the disparity in pay.

It's been 20 years since Dr. Jack Lewin has held the post of Hawaiʻi health director. Lewin has returned home to Hawaiʻi with a mission to help overhaul health care.

Hawai‘i has seen an uptick in its nursing workforce, according to a 2023 Nursing Workforce Supply Report released this week.

Strides are being made toward solving Hawaiʻi's health care worker shortage. Pacific Business News editor in chief A. Kam Napier has more on recent efforts to boost the nursing workforce.

Last month, The Conversation featured a new master's degree in construction management at Hawai’i Pacific University. The General Contractors Association of Hawaii just stepped up to support the program in a big way, to the tune of $250,000.

The state will have to pay $449 million to compensate government employees for coming to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hawaiʻi Government Employees Association accepted the state’s settlement offer for pandemic hazard pay.

The Honolulu Salary Commission wants to give the mayor, city lawmakers and department leaders a raise of about 3.6%. The commission this week made its final recommendations for the salaries, which now go through the Honolulu City Council. It includes a salary of $217,000 for the mayor, $127,000 for the council chair and $117,000 for councilmembers.

A handful of Honolulu councilmembers have introduced resolutions to let voters decide how the commission operates. The resolutions come a year after the commission gave councilmembers a controversial 64% raise. The commission said the raise followed and made up for years of stagnant pay. HPR's Mark Ladao has more.

NPR tech reporter Dara Kerr on billionaire Marc Benioff's behind-the-scenes land acquisitions in Waimea on Hawaiʻi Island; Journalist and author Joanne Lipman shares lessons on switching careers