Hawaii State Salaries 2012: The Hawaii Legislature
10/06/2011
Flickr:Daveiam
Hawaii lawmakers aren't making any more money this year, thanks to a political decision to extend their pay cuts imposed in 2009.
And most legislative staff salaries have also stayed the same.
Hawaii's 25 senators and 51 representatives earn the same annual salary of $46,273, with the exception of the Senate president and House speaker, who each earn a base salary $7,500 higher.
For the second year in a row, Civil Beat filed a request under Hawaii's open records law asking for the names, positions and salaries of all employees of the Hawaii Legislature. (Read a related article about more than 14,000 Hawaii state government employee salaries.)
The Legislature provided salary information as of July 1.
Hawaii lawmakers were close to getting a more than $2,400 salary boost this summer before reluctantly agreeing to extend 5 percent pay cuts for themselves through Dec. 31, 2013.
Act 57 continues legislators' pay cuts that began in mid-2009 and were initially set to expire June 30. Had the measure failed, lawmakers would have seen the the cuts restored. That would mean their annual salaries would have increased to $48,708 for a job that is officially part time. (Lawmakers are in session for four months out of the year.)
On top of restoring their pay to June 30, 2009 levels, a previously approved pay raise would have kicked in on Jan. 1, 2012, bumping their salaries up to $54,000. Salaries for the Senate president and House speaker would have increased to $61,500.
The scheduled pay raises had been recommended by a salary commission created by a 2006 constitutional amendment. The group, appointed mostly by former Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and House Speaker Calvin Say, can give lawmakers pay raises they don't have to vote on. The commission in 2007 approved a series of raises that would amount to a 61 percent increase by 2014 — from $35,900 in 2008 to $57,852 in January 2014.
