Raise wages and support workers:

• Raise the minimum wage and close the gender wage gap. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour has not been increased since 2009, and in particular, one-third of AANHPI women workers are paid less than $15 per hour. Moreover, disaggregated data demonstrates that, for example, Native Hawaiian women are paid only 66 cents for every dollar a white man is paid; Vietnamese, Laotian, and Samoan American women 61 cents; Burmese American women 53 cents; and Bhutanese American women only 38 cents.

• Ensure that all workers have the right to organize and collectively bargain. While union membership has declined nationally, AANHPI unionization has grown from 9.4% in 2013 to 9.8% in 2015. On average, unionization raises AANHPI workers’ wages by 9% —approximately two dollars per hour—and AANHPI workers in unions are 19% more likely to have health insurance and 25% more likely to be in a pension plan, compared to their non-union counterparts. These benefits are even greater for AANHPI workers in typically low-wage occupations.

• Enforce worker protection policies that maintain safe and respectful working environments for all working people regardless of job, immigration status, or documentation.

• Support paid family and medical leave and paid sick days.

Provide access to safe, affordable, and stable housing in our communities of choice:

• Increase, preserve, and improve existing affordable housing stock.

• Invest in affordable housing that is culturally appropriate and in AANHPI communities, including in culturally significant AANHPI neighborhoods and communities at risk of displacement.

• Provide equitable and accessible mortgage financing and refinancing, accounting for the needs and challenges faced by culturally and linguistically isolated populations.

• Increase access to public housing and other housing supports, including the restoration and expansion of Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) that were lost due to sequester

Wage Gap:

Support efforts to eliminate current gender wage gaps and support family supportive policies such as paid sick days.

Reform the tax code to be more equitable and close the racial wealth gap

Increase Native Hawaiian homeownership

• Preserve funding for Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grants.

• Restore equitable access to mortgage financing options on Hawaiian Home Lands by renegotiating the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the State of Hawaii’s Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, regarding Section 247 for Single Family Insured Mortgages on Hawaiian Home Lands.

• Expand the Native Hawaiian Loan Guarantee, Section 184A.

Support small business development and access to capital

• Promote access to capital, capacity building, and innovation to aid small business development, including micro-entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

• Support legislation to expand the U.S. Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development Program to include support for eligible Native Hawaiian organizations.