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Island life is expensive. For many Oahu residents, working multiple jobs to make ends meet is their reality. Imagine adding school-aged children into the scenario. Now imagine one of the children falls ill. When so many depend on hourly wages, it seems impossible to make time to seek health care for oneself or one’s family.

The fact that Hawaii does not protect its workforce by offering paid sick leave is objectionable, particularly since it seems so logical that a healthy work force is a productive one.

What if Hawaii, or better yet the United States, adopted paid sick leave laws? Now this isn’t an absurd topic. Almost every developed country has a policy protecting workers, their families, and their health.

Going to work while sick is common practice. Just taking a few hours off to see a doctor could devastate a family’s weekly budget. The fact that hourly wages do not equate to a livable wage in the state of Hawaii only reinforces the idea that every penny counts.

The federal Healthy Families Act (House Resolution 932) would allow Americans to earn paid sick time so that they can address their own health needs and the health needs of their families.

This bill calls for one hour of paid sick leave per every 30 hours worked, and is capped at 56 hours a year. Unfortunately, there is little chance of its approval at the federal level.

However, individual states and counties have enacted their own paid sick leave laws, such as Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland.

There have been attempts to pass paid sick legislation in Hawaii. In 2014, House Bill 2381 and Senate Bill 2493 were introduced. These are essentially the state’s version of the Federal Healthy Families Act previously mentioned.

These are bipartisan bills, meaning support across the political left and right. These bills often get introduced and referred out to committees and stagnate. If residents of Hawaii want these minimums in place, it is imperative to voice your opinion on the matter.

It’s too late to pursue the issues in this year’s legislative session, which concludes later this week. But it’s never too early to organize for next year’s session, when a few new faces may be in the Senate and House and the opportunities may be greater to sensitize lawmakers to this serious need.

Call or write to your representatives, senators, and community leaders. Show up to testify in committee hearings. The best chance of change in Hawaii is to get involved and show personal support.

Let’s catch up to the rest of the world and provide Hawaii residents with healthy opportunities.