Two strikingly different competing plans at the state Legislature to incrementally raise Hawaii’s minimum wage have come into closer alignment.

The House Finance Committee on Thursday amended a bill that 40 of 51 House members introduced in January, trimming much contrast with a bill that senators approved quickly in January with no changes on a 24-1 vote.

The overhaul to the House bill comes just ahead of a midpoint in this year’s legislative session next week, and improves the likelihood that a compromise will be found before the session wraps up May 5.

If a consensus can be reached, raising the floor of what Hawaii’s lowest-paid workers earn would fulfill an aspiration by House and Senate leadership, and ratchet up the local minimum wage that last changed in 2018 under legislation passed in 2014 after an 11th-hour compromise between House and Senate members.

Still, a sizable gap exists in the competing bills.

House Bill 2510, as revised, would boost the current $10.10 minimum hourly wage in six steps instead of eight, and reach a peak of $18 in 2028.

Previously in the bill, the first planned step was to $11 on Jan. 1, with the final an increase to $18 in 2030. Now the initial step would be to $13 on Jan. 1, followed by a $1 increase per year until reaching $18 in 2028.

By comparison, Senate Bill 2018 would take Hawaii’s hourly minimum wage to the same peak two years faster and in three steps — reaching $18 in 2026 after moving to $12 on Oct. 1 and $15 on Jan. 1, 2024.

Another change made to the House bill Thursday eliminated previously intended tweaks to all but one of several tax credits and a trigger for automatic increases after 2030 tied to changes in the statewide median wage. The Senate bill has no such provisions.

One thing not removed from the House bill is an escalation in an existing tip credit, which allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage to employees who earn tips. Again, the Senate bill intends no tip credit change.

Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Makiki-Punchbowl-Nuuanu), House Finance chair, said the changes to HB 2510 were offered after much discussion among caucus members. The committee passed the amended version of the bill on a 14-0 vote. However, a few committee members expressed a desire for more changes.

Rep. Chris Todd (D, Hilo-­Waiakea-Keaukaha) said he doesn’t believe a tip credit is appropriate.

“I don’t personally believe that restaurants or similar industries should be left off the hook in terms of what they’re obligated to pay their employees,” he said. “But I recognize that there’s no such thing as a perfect minimum wage bill, and I am happy with some of the progress made in this committee and I give that respect out to the chairs who have been working very diligently for many months.”

Rep. Amy Perruso (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-­Poamoho) also said she opposes the tip credit provision but voted to advance the bill after a no vote on a prior version of the bill in another committee.

Rep. Tina Wildberger (D, South Maui) offered a yes vote with reservations “in deference to all the people languishing at poverty wages and the fact that this bill is still a little bit behind the market.”

At $10.10, someone working 40 hours a week would earn $21,008 a year.

Retired University of Hawaii political science professor Neal Milner predicts that one of the bills will become law this year, and said there’s probably a good chance that a final agreement happens at the end of the session in a conference committee, where negotiators from the House and Senate selected by leadership hash out lingering differences.

“Essentially it’s the same goal,” he said.

Former state Sen. Clayton Hee, who was instrumental in helping pass the 2014 minimum wage bill, said the present effort represents a bigger challenge because there is a wider gap between competing bills. But, he added, the path to passing one bill may be easier given that leaders in the House and Senate have proclaimed their intention to raise the minimum wage.

In 2014, the House preference was to raise the minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $10 over four years, while the Senate goal was $10.10 over three years. In the end, the compromise was $10.10 over four years.

Hee said 2014 negotiations in conference committee, given the relatively small difference between House and Senate positions, weren’t terribly difficult or contentious. However, a major challenge was to persuade leadership to buy into the deal to elevate the $7.25 minimum wage, which hadn’t increased since 2007.

“It wasn’t a piece of cake,” he said.

The 2014 agreement followed a 2013 failure in conference committee to reach a compromise on a minimum wage bill, primarily over the tip credit.

In Hee’s view, the starting positions this year in the competing bills featuring a four-year difference in reaching the last step-up appeared like an awfully big gap to bridge. Hee also said, before knowing about the House bill being amended, that there is plenty of time left in the legislative session for bills to be massaged so that the gap narrows.

“Legislation is product of compromise,” he said.

Minimum wage competition by Honolulu Star-Advertiser