At $7.75 per hour, Hawaii’s minimum wage is higher than two dozen states. But when you adjust for the high cost of living in the islands, that wage is only worth $6.67, according to a new analysis by the Washington Post.

That’s lower than any other state, the newspaper found. The states that fare the best in the analysis are South Dakota, Oregon and Washington where the minimum wage, adjusted for cost of living, is $9.70, $9.37 and $9.18 respectively.

In general, Honolulu salaries plummet when the cost of living in factored in, making it tough even for professionals to find well-paying jobs.

The Washington Post story notes that a major factor diminishing the value of the Hawaii’s minimum wage is the state’s high cost of housing. That contributes to the state’s extremely high rate of homelessness and also drives some locals away.

But some relief is on the way. Last year, the Hawaii Legislature passed a law that will raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by January 2018. It remains to be seen what kind of a difference that will — or won’t — make.

Click here to read the full article from the Washington Post.

For more about Hawaii’s high cost of living, read Civil Beat’s exploration of the subject in Living Hawaii and personal stories from readers in Connections.