One job should be enough. For striking hotel workers, however, it’s barely enough to cover the cost of rent or child care, leaving hospitality industry employees hovering precipitously close to the poverty line.

Hotel chains can certainly afford to pay their workers a livable wage. Hawaii’s tourism industry banked a record $16.8 billion in visitor spending in 2017, with this year’s figures continuing to break records.

What’s at issue, then, isn’t economics, but respect for the working class. Hotel magnates’ failure to care for their workers reproduces a socioeconomic hierarchy in which elite, college-educated businessmen profit at the expense of their employees, who may not have college degrees.

Yet, college is often unaffordable to members of the underpaid and overworked hospitality workforce. Moreover, degrees don’t determine the value of hotel workers’ labor, which forms the engine of our booming tourist economy. They should be rewarded for doing such a good job.

State Rep. Amy Perruso

Wahiawa

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