This practice has long been the norm across the country
Posted: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
The State House and Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a bill that would ensure Hawaiʻi public and charter school teachers receive annual step pay increases, a best practice that’s been the norm in most other school districts across the country for decades.
A step increase is equivalent to a 3% salary hike, except for those moving from 14A to 14B and transitioning to the last step, which results in a 6% pay raise. Annual step increases have been written into HSTA’s contract for years, but have just never been funded.
In remarks on the State Senate floor before the vote Wednesday morning, Senate Education Chair Donna Mercado Kim (D, ‘Ālewa, Kalihi, Moanalua, Red Hill) said the bill is important to combat the teacher shortage and constant educator “turnover that disrupts learning, burdens our schools and denies our students the stability they deserve.”
Kim said the automatic steps bill “does not remove negotiation, but it provides structure, clarity, and consistency where it’s been lacking, and during this time, with a challenging and tight budget, this bill sends a message that we value our teachers, that we recognize their service, and we are committed to giving them a reason to stay. Keeping experienced, dedicated teachers in our classroom is one of the most important investments we can make in our students and in the future of this state.”
In a floor speech, Senate Labor Chair Brandon Elefante (D, Aiea, Hālawa, Pearlridge, Waimalu, Pearl City) noted that yesterday was National Teacher Appreciation Day, “and this week, we celebrate all our teachers and appreciate all of them for their hard work.”
“Our teachers are overworked. They do so much for our students. And as a graduate of public schools, from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, I’ve seen firsthand, including a labor strike during that time, when I was in high school, the impact and what our teachers stood for. You see them paying out of their own pockets for things on such salaries that they make, which doesn’t even compare to some other states or counties on the national level,” Elefante added.
State Sen. Samantha DeCorte (R, Ko ‘Olina, Nānākuli, Mā‘ili, Wai‘anae, Mākaha, Mākua), a member of the Senate Education Committee, thanked its chair, Donna Kim, and Education Committee Vice Chair Michelle Kidani for ensuring that educators are valued.
“We see you, we hear you, we feel you, and we’re answering the call,” DeCorte said.
“With this bill passing, and with everybody’s collective support, that’s what we’re messaging to the teachers as the ones who have been hanging in there on a thread, going paycheck to paycheck, continuing to pay for their own supplies. This is not just a Monday-through-Friday job. This is a 24/7 job,” DeCorte said on the Senate floor.
Salary predictability is important to attract and retain educators, said ʻIlima Intermediate teacher Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin, who also serves as lobbyist for the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association this legislative session.
“We are so grateful to lawmakers in the Senate and House who voted unanimously to approve this important bill,” Milianta-Laffin said.
“You have to know that your profession is viable for your future. And when it comes to what you’re gonna make and what you’re gonna save, the average amount of money needed to get a child from 0 to 18 in Hawaiʻi costs about $450,000. If you know that in your future as an educator you also want to have a family, you need to be able to plan for these milestones moving forward, so you need to know what you’re gonna make,” Milianta-Laffin added.
An in-depth, independent study of Hawaiʻi’s teacher compensation system, completed last fall, recommended that the employer consider funding automatic step increases for teachers.
HSTA’s salary calculator allows educators to enter their step and class to see their pay rates for this school year, when most Bargaining Unit 05 members received a step increase valued at 3% (except for those who moved from 14A to 14B this year, who received a step valued at 6%). The calculator will also calculate pay rates for next school year, when all teachers will receive an across-the-board pay hike of 3.5%.
Need to find your class and step? Toward the end of every school year, HIDOE sends a link to each teacher’s HIDOE email address containing their personnel action form (Form 5) for the next school year, along with all their previous Form 5s for reference. The link does not expire.
HSTA’s new salary loss calculator allows our members to see how much money they would lose over a 25-year career without guaranteed annual step pay increases, which is the norm in the vast majority of other school districts across the country.
The bills approved by the House and Senate this session will be sent to Gov. Josh Green, who will decide whether to sign them into law, veto them, or allow them to become law without his signature. Any intent to veto by the governor must be announced by June 30, otherwise, they become law by July 15 with or without his signature.
Once the bill is signed into law, HSTA will still have to work with the employer to implement the changes. Be on the lookout for updates to be shared with members as soon as the logistics are ironed out.
What about those already on the top salary step?
Since the legislative conference committee passed the bill Friday, HSTA has heard from numerous members who are already at the highest pay step – Step 14B.
“I would also like to know how there will be compensation for teachers on Step 14B who were compressed for years in pay because there were not automatic step increases for years,” wrote one teacher on Facebook.
In response, HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. explained, “We have done all we can do legislatively with regard to salary steps. Now we have to pivot to the bargaining table, which is the appropriate venue to address the thousands of experienced educators who are already on the top step.”
HSTA’s four-year contract expires on June 30, 2027, and negotiations on a new agreement will begin this fall.
Milianta-Laffin, the teacher lobbyist, said, “We need our 14B’s behind us at the bargaining table to say, you have worked your time, you have earned your place, you have done what you can for the keiki Hawaiʻi. Now, we need to go ahead and sit at the bargaining table, get your next victory.”
HSTA Government Relations Chair Hope Pualani McKeen, who is at the second-highest salary step, said, “For me, being at 14A, I am so excited for my younger colleagues to be able to move up that salary scale.”
“Yes, we did the work. It’s not necessarily for me. However, it’ll ensure that we have a better pipeline and provide that stability for our workforce so that we can get out of a teacher shortage crisis,” added McKeen, who is a kaiapuni (Hawaiian immersion) resource teacher in the Kaʻū-Keaʻau-Pāhoa Complex Area on Hawaiʻi Island.
Under HSTA’s current contract, the 2025-2026 school year brought a significant victory for our most experienced educators, as the salary schedule was amended to create a Class VIII with a 4% raise above Class VII. More than 4,500 teachers at Class VII began moving to Class VIII last fall.
“The establishment of Class VIII was a significant win that our members have been asking for for so many years,” Tui added.
After years of lobbying by HSTA, state lawmakers in 2022 approved long-awaited pay increases for thousands of educators whose salaries had been compressed during hard economic times. That resulted in about 72% of the members of Bargaining Unit 05, roughly 9,200 educators, seeing their annual pay jump anywhere from $1,500 to $18,000. The average teacher affected by the compression pay adjustments saw their salary rise by about $6,000 per year, with payments beginning in November of 2022.
Some teachers moved up several steps in pay levels, and hundreds of senior teachers moved to the top salary step of 14B in 2022 as part of that one-time salary adjustment.
In the meantime, HSTA continues its efforts to resolve compression issues affecting thousands of other educators who weren’t properly credited for teaching outside Hawaiʻi’s public school system.
What happened with pandemic hazard pay?
During this yearʻs legislative session, HSTA strongly advocated for hazard pay for teachers who put themselves in harm’s way by teaching children during the pandemic, even suggesting ways to generate new state revenue to cover the cost. But that effort did not survive the legislative session.
The proposal was moving through the legislative process, but then two Kona low storms struck Hawaiʻi in March, causing over $1 billion (and rising) in damages. While federal support through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been promised, legislators in both houses, who were already struggling to balance the state budget, were not keen on additional spending and instead worked to add $50 million to the state’s rainy day fund.
“There would have been more funding for hazard pay for our educators, had it not been for the unfortunate back-to-back storms that hit our state,” said Tui, HSTA’s president.