Fellows mentioned in this story: Suzanne Skjold
From Civil Beat:
The minimum income needed to pay for basic essentials as a family of four in Hawai‘i has ballooned to $104,052 a year, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonprofit Aloha United Way.
The rapid rise in Hawai‘i’s cost of living — an 18% jump in the basic survival budget for families and a 26% increase for individuals between 2019 and 2021 — is dramatic, even to researchers who had anticipated seeing an increase.
“I think for all of us it was more significant than we had even imagined,” said Suzanne Skjold, chief operating officer of Aloha United Way.
The report released Wednesday is part of an effort to track the needs of people living in poverty but also those who are overlooked by federal poverty statistics but are still living paycheck-to-paycheck — a group referred to by the acronym ALICE: asset limited, income constrained, and employed.
Around 41% of Hawai‘i residents fall below the ALICE threshold, with 12% living under the federal poverty line — the highest percentage in more than a decade.
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Pacific Inno — Mana Up said the program was designed “specifically for new businesses in Hawai‘i to streamline and ease the burden of employment administration and hiring.”