How are Kauaʻi’s STAR workers distributed across income bands relative to the living-wage threshold?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Four — Mobility Through Lifelong Learning
Geography: Kauaʻi County
Topic: STARs, living-wage attainment, upskilling, and workforce investment
The takeaway
Among Kauaʻi’s approximately 37,008 STAR workers, 18,670 earn more than $20,000 below the living-wage threshold.
Another 11,421 already earn above a living wage.
Between those groups are 6,916 workers who may be closer to economic security. This includes 3,012 workers earning within $10,000 of the threshold and 3,904 earning between $10,000 and $20,000 below it.
Together, the two groups within $20,000 of a living wage represent approximately 19% of Kauaʻi’s STAR workforce.
Nearly 7,000 Kauaʻi STAR workers are within $20,000 of a living wage—a population small enough to target deliberately, but large enough to produce meaningful island-wide impact.
What this visualization shows
This visualization distributes Kauaʻi’s STAR workforce across four income bands based on the difference between workers’ earnings and the living-wage threshold:
Far Below: More than $20,000 below a living wage — 18,670 workers
Below: Between $10,000 and $20,000 below — 3,904 workers
Near: Within $10,000 of the threshold — 3,012 workers
Above: Already earning a living wage — 11,421 workers
The Far Below category is the largest. Roughly half of Kauaʻi’s STAR workforce earns more than $20,000 below the threshold, indicating that many workers face an earnings gap too large to close through a modest raise or short-term credential alone.
Approximately 31% already earns above a living wage.
The remaining workers occupy the space between those outcomes. About 8% are within $10,000 of the threshold, while another 11% are between $10,000 and $20,000 below it.
The visualization identifies the scale of each group, but it does not show workers’ industries, occupations, hourly wages, hours worked, household circumstances, or access to advancement.
The phrase within reach should therefore be interpreted as an analytical starting point. A worker may be relatively close to the threshold without having access to a promotion, higher-paying job, or training pathway capable of closing the gap.
Why this matters
Kauaʻi’s small scale creates both an opportunity and a design challenge.
A population of approximately 6,916 STAR workers within $20,000 of a living wage is a substantial target, but it is far smaller than the comparable populations in Honolulu or Hawaiʻi County.
That could make focused intervention more manageable.
A coordinated strategy involving a relatively small number of employers, training providers, occupations, and workers could potentially move a visible share of the island’s workforce toward economic security. Progress affecting hundreds or a few thousand workers would meaningfully change the county’s overall distribution.
But Kauaʻi’s size may also make some forms of workforce infrastructure difficult to sustain.
Episode Three demonstrated that strong mobility pathways require more than training funds. Employers and workers may need recruitment, navigation, wage subsidies, assessment, placement, coaching, data tracking, and ongoing coordination. Building a fully independent organization to perform all those functions for a target population of fewer than 7,000 workers may be expensive relative to the number of people served.
Kauaʻi may therefore need a different operating model from Honolulu.
Some functions could be shared statewide or across multiple counties: technology, outcome tracking, curriculum development, fiscal administration, employer-of-record services, and quality standards. Local organizations could then focus on the functions that require trusted relationships and knowledge of place: employer engagement, worker outreach, navigation, and problem-solving.
The island’s limited job base remains the deeper constraint.
Even an efficient intermediary cannot move thousands of workers across the living-wage threshold unless employers offer enough higher-paying roles. Kauaʻi will need to determine how many workers can advance within existing industries, how many can transition into stronger sectors, and whether new economic capacity must be developed.
This evidence invites Kauaʻi to ask:
What combination of shared statewide infrastructure and locally grounded coordination could help nearly 7,000 workers advance without creating a system too costly to sustain?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
How many Kauaʻi STAR workers already earn above a living wage?
How many earn more than $20,000 below the threshold?
How many are within $10,000 of reaching a living wage?
How many earn between $10,000 and $20,000 below it?
What share of Kauaʻi’s STAR workforce is within $20,000 of the threshold?
Which income band contains the largest number of workers?
How large is the population that may be responsive to focused upskilling, advancement, or wage interventions?
How large is the population likely to require deeper occupational transitions or improvements in job quality?
How does Kauaʻi’s absolute number of workers within reach compare with those of larger counties?
Why might Kauaʻi require a different workforce-delivery model from Honolulu?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
In which industries are the 3,012 STAR workers closest to a living wage concentrated?
Which occupations account for most workers in the Near and Below categories?
What wage increase would move the typical Near worker across the threshold?
Could employer raises or promotions close the gap without requiring workers to change industries?
Which credentials or training programs on Kauaʻi reliably produce earnings gains of at least $10,000?
How many workers could advance through incumbent-worker training?
Which workers would need to transition into a different occupation or industry?
Are low earnings driven primarily by hourly wages, limited hours, seasonal work, or unstable scheduling?
How many workers in each category are employed full time?
Which Kauaʻi employers already offer clear internal career ladders?
How many higher-paying openings could those employers generate annually?
Does Kauaʻi have enough living-wage destination jobs to move nearly 7,000 workers over time?
Which Anchor and Building industries are capable of absorbing additional workers?
How many workers could realistically advance through Construction, Healthcare, Utilities, Transportation, or other promising sectors?
Would training additional workers exceed local employer demand?
Could remote employment expand the number of higher-wage destinations available to Kauaʻi residents?
What broadband, workspace, training, and employer infrastructure would remote pathways require?
Could wage supplements or public reimbursement changes close the gap in essential but underpaid occupations?
Which workers would be better served by improving their existing jobs rather than changing careers?
How do the income bands vary by race, gender, age, disability, community, and educational experience?
What transportation, childcare, scheduling, or financial barriers could prevent participation in training?
How much would it cost to support all 3,012 Near workers across the threshold?
Would focusing first on workers closest to the threshold produce the greatest immediate impact?
How should Kauaʻi balance that opportunity with the deeper needs of the 18,670 workers who are Far Below?
Is the addressable population large enough to support an island-specific intermediary?
Which intermediary functions must be delivered locally?
Which functions could be shared statewide or with other Neighbor Islands?
Could an existing organization serve as Kauaʻi’s local coordinating partner within a broader statewide network?
How many employers and workers could one local intermediary team support effectively?
Would shared infrastructure reduce administrative costs without weakening local relationships?
How should funding formulas account for the higher per-person coordination costs of serving a small island?
What minimum level of employer and sector capacity is necessary before upskilling investments can produce reliable mobility?
Youth Perspective
Contributor:
Role:
Responding to:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer placerat leo sit amet efficitur lobortis. Nulla sagittis orci in orci fermentum, id ornare urna dictum. Donec dapibus suscipit tortor, et ornare velit dictum id. Mauris libero quam, eleifend a lobortis in, facilisis at odio. Praesent sit amet ullamcorper purus, a pellentesque augue. Nullam enim purus, accumsan ut lobortis ut, venenatis id nisi. Mauris leo nunc, cursus vitae dui nec, porttitor gravida sem. Nunc varius metus sit amet mi porta blandit. Nam a lectus enim. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Mauris leo erat.
