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A low unemployment rate is better than a high one. The latest round of federal labor figures ranked Hawaii among states with the five lowest rates. In July, for the fifth month in a row, the jobless rate in the islands was 2.8%. The U.S. rate also held steady at 3.7%. Read more

A low unemployment rate is better than a high one. The latest round of federal labor figures ranked Hawaii among states with the five lowest rates. In July, for the fifth month in a row, the jobless rate in the islands was 2.8%. The U.S. rate also held steady at 3.7%.

That’s something to cheer on this Labor Day. However, it’s possible for sunny low unemployment to mask symptoms of an unhealthy economy. On that score, Hawaii has some long-standing concerns.

Among the factors keeping the unemployment rate low is Hawaii’s growing aging population — the retiring so-called silver tsunami, baby boomers. And chief among the state’s ongoing employment profile concerns is that many available jobs are in the dominant tourism-focused service sector and don’t pay enough to cover the state’s high housing costs.

According to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s latest “Self-Sufficiency Income Standard,” in 2016, an individual living in Honolulu needed to be making $33,350 a year be “self-sufficient.” That worked out to an hourly wage of nearly $15.80 to meet basic needs, such as those linked to housing, groceries and transportation.

Hawaii’s minimum-wage workers earn $21,000 a year — working full time at $10.10 hourly wage. Based on that, according to Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice, a minimum wage worker has to tally upwards of 100 hours per week just to pay rent for a 1-bedroom apartment.

In January, in Gov. David Ige’s fifth State of the State address, he rightly pledged to push for moving the minimum wage closer to a real “living wage,” adding: “Concern for others — whether they are homeless, incarcerated, disadvantaged, our children, or the community at large — that is the hallmark of who we are.”

State lawmakers then weighed but failed to pass a bill to establish a minimum wage of $12.50 an hour for employers who provide health coverage to their workers, and the floor wage of $15 per hour for employers who don’t provide health coverage.

The two-tiered proposal was dropped after the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations warned that it would create legal complications in connection with the state’s Prepaid Health Care Act, which requires employers to provide health coverage to any employee working at least 20 hours a week.

Still, such a wage differential seems to be the right impulse, given that in states with a higher minimum wage, fewer private employers provide health insurance. According to a study by Kaiser Family Foundation, Hawaii has the highest proportion of private employers paying this benefit, at 81.8%.

Balancing the compelling argument to raise the minimum wage with employer challenges to make financial ends meet — especially in a state with a disproportionately large number of small businesses — is no easy task. But as Hawaii’s self-sufficiency standard remains daunting for nearly half of the state’s households, lawmakers should fix their focus on charting at least a gradual increase.

Minimum-wage workers in Hawaii make up 14% of our total workforce, and more than half are over age 25.

Between 2015 and 2018, our minimum wage increased by 39% while the unemployment rate dropped. It’s plausible, as supporters maintain, that higher wages improve worker morale, productivity and loyalty, which spares employers the costs of constantly hiring and training new people.

Also, it’s reasonable to assume that most of any bump in pay in worker households will get plowed back into local businesses, touching off positive economic ripple effects.

So far, seven states have enacted legislation that sets a $15 hourly wage as a living wage pay standard. For the sake of an overall healthier workforce, Hawaii should join them.