HONOLULU — Nearly one-third of Hawaii families don’t meet self-sufficiency income levels, according to a state report.
A family of four needs to bring in nearly $78,000 on Oahu to be self-sufficient — or able to cover expenses without government or other outside help, Hawaii News Now reported Wednesday. That’s up from $74,940 in 2014 and is $22,000 more than what the same family would have needed a decade ago.
The report looked at the costs of housing, food, transportation, child care and taxes.
It found that families on the Big Island needed the lowest self-sufficiency income to make ends meet, while some of the highest incomes needed were seen on Kauai and Maui.
The biennial self-sufficiency study was aimed at gauging how the state’s cost of living affects families.
For a single adult, the self-sufficiency income in Hawaii was at nearly $33,000.
A single parent with two children needs to bring in at least $69,000 in Hawaii to be self-sufficient.
For a family of four on Oahu, the report put the total cost of basic needs at $6,497 a month. That includes $1,787 for housing, $1,131 for child care and $1,260 for food.
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Information from: KGMB-TV, http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/
People won’t like this answer, but first and foremost don’t have kids you can’t afford. Second, there is too much available labor and that keeps wages low for non skilled jobs. Move and/or go to school for a better job. And no, the answer is not mandated wage increases, that closes businesses , less people employed by those businesses and raises the cost of living because the price of things go up to pay for those increased costs and that’s a loss for everyone, even with the better job. Face it, if you, not the government, does not improve your circumstances, you will always be at the bottom of the ladder.