California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a law to raise the state’s minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2022.

That’s nearly twice as much as Hawaii’s current minimum wage of $8.50. Hawaii’s minimum wage is on track to increase to $10.10 by January 1, 2018.

New York is the only other state that has committed to raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, the Sacramento Bee reported.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Hawaii is more expensive than either California or New York.

Hawaii Sen. Josh Green from the Big Island introduced a bill this year that sought to increase the minimum wage to $16 per hour by 2020.

But the proposal died after Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran from Maui didn’t call a hearing for it.

A protester at the Hawaii State Capitol urges lawmakers to raise the minimum wage during the 2014 legislative session. PF Bentley/Civil Beat

Anita Hofschneider is a reporter covering the Pacific for Civil Beat. She previously covered city and state politics, land, social issues and the pandemic. Her work has won multiple national, regional and local awards. Prior to starting at Civil Beat, Anita covered the 2013 Hawaii legislative session...