Hawaii is a very expensive place to live. Many come to Hawaii because they dream to live here, but sooner or later they are forced to leave because they can’t catch up with paying the bills. Many families have two or even more jobs, so they are able to cover the most necessary expenses. The middle class person makes around $15 an hour. Many jobs though are still in the range of $8.00 - $10.00. Thus for those people $15 an hour is a luxury. To give you an example, couple of days ago in the newspaper I saw an ad of a famous food retailer who offer job and the text add was saying something like “you can make up to $15 (including tips and gas coverage)”. So wow, I wonder if this is the maximum... [Read more]

When I first came to Hawaii in 2004, a plate of lunch was $5.50. Today the same plate of lunch is $8.90, which is $3.40 more. At the same time pay has not really gone up at all. But rent, on the contrary – it went up. Back in 2004, the average rate to rent a room was $500 to $600 per month, and the same room today is at least $800. Of course, it depends on the area where you want to rent, but the overall trend is that the prices go up. There are different reasons why the cost of living in Hawaii is so high, and all of these reasons are connected. Here are some of them: Everything in Hawaii (or almost everything) has to be imported from the U.S. mainland or other parts of the world. So because... [Read more]