ALICE Frequently Asked Questions

ALICE may be a relative or friend. You may be ALICE. As cashiers, waiters, child care providers, and other members of our essential workforce, ALICE earns just above the Federal Poverty Level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. These struggling households are forced to make impossible choices each day. While such hardship is pervasive, households of color are disproportionately ALICE.

ALICE also represents the data reshaping the dialogue on financial hardship, and a grassroots movement that is picking up steam across half of U.S. states – and counting.

The AUW ALICE Initiative is a comprehensive strategy aimed at generating awareness around what ALICE households face, and driving long-term, systemic change towards greater financial stability in Hawaiʻi. Through the collective work of our partners and sponsors, The ALICE Initiative provides resources for ALICE Households, as well as data and tools to inform policy and drive systemic change in Hawaiʻi.

United for ALICE is an organization that provides a framework and language for stakeholders to reassess public and corporate policies and implement changes that improve the lives of ALICE and their communities. Through the development of the ALICE measurements, a comprehensive, unbiased picture of financial hardship has emerged.

Founded and led by United Way of Northern New Jersey, grassroots ALICE movements have spread to 30 U.S. states and includes initiatives from United Ways, corporations, nonprofits, and foundations.

ALICE research quantifies and describes the number of households that are struggling financially. This project raises awareness about a huge but hidden segment of our community that is struggling to afford basic necessities. The success of a community is directly related to the financial stability of its members.

Rent or electric bill? Food or prescription drug? For too many hardworking households, impossible decisions such as these are a way of life. When ALICE is forced to make difficult choices, the entire community faces consequences.

As of December 2022, the United for ALICE network has 28 active partner states and comparisons are available for both how Hawaiʻi stands nationally and compared to other partners. The comparison varies depending on the metric, and data can be obtained here.

If you would like to be involved in community discussions, strategic planning, advocacy on issues affecting ALICE households, or future opportunities as an investor or grantee, please email Impact@auw.org

Aloha United Way leads the ALICE Initiative in Hawaiʻi and works collectively with partners and sponsors to bring community members, foundations, legislators, and businesses together to build out a wide range of systematic solutions that help ALICE families in Hawaiʻi become financially stable.

Shared Goal: Improve systems, policies, and the continuum of services, for individuals and families to support upward economic mobility above the ALICE threshold.

Shared Vision: Individuals and Families are able to thrive economically and culturally, enjoy generational prosperity, and continue living in Hawai’i.

The ALICE Cohort is a collective of nonprofit organizations working to develop and implement impactful and scalable programs to help Hawaiʻi’s ALICE households. The collective impact work will focus on increasing financial stability and savings, as well as increasing access to safe and affordable housing.

2025-2027 AUW ALICE Cohort Organizations:

The current AUW ALICE Cohort (2025-2027) consists of 20 nonprofit agencies that will collectively receive $1.3 million per year to fund initiatives that tackle economic challenges facing working families across the state.

• Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi
• Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi
• Family Promise of Hawaiʻi
• Feed the Hunger Foundation
• Goodwill Hawaiʻi
• Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice
• Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network
• Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute
• Hawaiian Community Assets Inc.
• IHS, The Institute for Human Services Inc.
• Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture
• Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services
• Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi
• Parents And Children Together
• Partners in Development Foundation
• Residential Youth Services & Empowerment
• The Salvation Army Hawaiian & Pacific Islands Division (Oʻahu)
• Touch a Heart Inc.
• Waikīkī Community Center
• Young Women’s Christian Association of Oʻahu

Aloha United Way and Hawaiʻi Community Foundation are jointly leading the ALICE Initiative and have contracted independent facilitators to assist with development of shared measures of success. An independent evaluation team is tracking their progress at a collective level.

Additionally, each grantee partner has an ALICE program demonstrating upward economic mobility and access to affordable housing solutions. These individual programs are also evaluated by the independent evaluation team to track progress. Nonprofit partners are empowered to iterate programs as necessary to fine-tune innovative solutions for ALICE Households. Annual reports will reflect this progress and be available to the public after each report period.

The AUW ALICE Cohort’s $1.3 million in funding includes a leading $500,000 contribution from The Hawai‘i Community Foundation, alongside generous support from the Bank of Hawai‘i Foundation, HEI Charitable Foundation, HMSA, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, and Locations Foundation.

Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and Bank of Hawaiʻi Foundation have been long-time financial supporters of the ALICE Initiative. In 2022, Hawaiʻi Community Foundation partnered with Aloha United Way to lead the ALICE Initiative to increase investment in the ALICE Cohort from 2022-2024.

The Bank of Hawaiʻi Foundation has invested in the AUW ALICE Fund over the next three years and generously commissioned the most recent report, ALICE in Hawaiʻi 2022: Facts & Figures. Significant additional support and investment in the ALICE Initiative is being provided by HMSA, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, Locations Foundation, and AUW Women United.

Organizations outside the ALICE Cohort can participate in advocacy, strategic discussions, and investment in the ALICE Initiative. Success of the ALICE Initiative depends on cross-sector collaboration and support of the work both financially and strategically, and Aloha United Way and The Hawai‛i Community Foundation will continue to expand the ALICE Initiative to include substantial involvement from interested community based, business, and government sector partners. To be kept informed or become involved in this work, email us at Impact@auw.org.

The 2024 update of the ALICE report sheds light on the most up-to-date challenges for ALICE families in Hawaiʻi and provides critical insights into the financial stability of local working families. By exploring updated survival budgets, the impacts of tax credits, and the unique struggles of specific communities like Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, this report calls for targeted actions to ensure economic stability and growth for all.

For a summary of our biggest takeaways from this 2024 ALICE update, read: Financial Stability in Hawai‘i: Understanding the 2024 ALICE Data Update

• 2024 update of the ALICE report
• 2022 ALICE in the Crosscurrents Report
• 2022 ALICE Facts & Figures Report
  • Hawai‛i County: 2022 Facts and Figures
  • Honolulu County: 2022 Facts and Figures
  • Kaua‛i County: 2022 Facts and Figures
  • Maui County: 2022 Facts and Figures
• ALICE in Focus: Veterans (2022)
• ALICE in Focus: People with Disabilities (2022)
• ALICE in Focus: Children Research Brief (2022)
• The Pandemic Divide: An ALICE Analysis of National COVID Surveys (2021)
• ALICE in Hawaii: A Financial Hardship Study (2020)
• ALICE: A Study of Financial Hardship in Hawaii Full Report (2017)

Estimates provided during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic placed those below the ALICE Threshold at 59% and were based on a snapshot in time in 2020. The most recent data indicates an increase in the percentage of ALICE Households since 2018, but a reduction and partial recovery since the height of the pandemic’s financial impacts. 

Additional information with neighbor island breakdowns can be found here.

The Area Median Income is a measure produced by the Hawai‛i Community Development Authority that factors income and asset limits only. While annual Hawai‛i AMI tables are often used to qualify households for State benefits and essential services, ALICE provides a deeper picture into a household’s situation because it includes estimates on its essential costs such as taxes, healthcare, transportation, food, childcare, and housing, as well as income.

Because the ALICE Household Survival Budget is more comprehensive and factors expenses against income, it does not align neatly to AMI, and households with the same AMI may in fact be facing very different financial situations.

There is opportunity to connect eligibility for public benefits to an ALICE household measurement and may be useful to help address some limitations of Hawai‛i’s Area Median Income schedules, which can contribute to the risk of a serve benefits cliff for a household if used as a cut-off point for eligibility.

While significant legislative progress was made to increase Hawaiʻi’s minimum wage over the next few years, it is not the sole solution to improve the financial stability and economic mobility for ALICE Households. To achieve greater financial stability, we must address rising costs of living, improve access to credit and affordable housing, and strengthen pathways to so households can generate sufficient savings.

The ALICE Household Survival Budget is important as it combines information about income with the cost of essentials, and is a key metric to show how a household is managing. The 2022 ALICE in Hawai‛i data show that if a household makes under $75,000 a year, which equates to 2 adults working full-time at $18 hour, there is an 84% chance that the household falls under the ALICE Threshold. The planned minimum wage target for Hawai‛i is closely aligned to the minimum needed to support a Household Survival Budget, and income under this amount makes it very unlikely a household can meet its basic expenses.

Increasing the minimum wage makes a positive impact for those working in low wage employment, and to increase the financial stability of ALICE households who are employed at or near the minimum wage, there is great opportunity to further advance wages and financial wellbeing through workforce development opportunities for both degree-seekers and trade certifications and to support planning to build stronger and more diverse careers for Hawai‛i.

Improving wages is critical and must be coupled with policy improvements to address Hawai‛i’s benefits cliff so households who begin to earn more are not at-risk of steep benefit losses that result in a net loss of income. Advancing the economic resilience of our community does not solely depend on increasing wages, though it is a factor.

Good credit is a gateway to building assets and wealth. Credit counseling and programs that support financial health and planning are part of the recommended approach to help an individual, and further work is needed to improve the credit system and its impacts as well, and ALICE households would benefit greatly legislation that supports more equitable credit scoring models to mitigate systemic inequity. Some possible approaches include legislation that limits reporting debt incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, placing limits on reporting negative medical debt, and reducing the amount of time negative information can remain on a credit report.

The 2022 ALICE in Hawai‛i report data very clearly show the risk a household will fall from ALICE into poverty from one financial crisis, such as an unexpected emergency cost or loss of income. Policies that strengthen and expand safety net supports so a household can weather a short-term financial emergency is one direct and impactful change that can be added to the State’s safety net programs.

Additional Hawai‛i state benefits cliff reforms should also be considered to support those who may begin to lose federal or State benefits policy improvements so households who begin to earn more are not at-risk of steep benefit losses that result in a net loss of income and make a household worse off financially.

Additionally, policies that create greater access to equitable lines of credit and financial services can make a greater impact on the stability of ALICE Households.

Policies aimed at stabilizing housing and access to housing for local residents are also a focus of the ALICE Initiative.

Organizations outside the ALICE Cohort can participate in advocacy, strategic discussions, and investment in the ALICE Initiative. Success of the ALICE Initiative depends on cross-sector collaboration and support of the work both financially and strategically, and Aloha United Way and The Hawai‛i Community Foundation will continue to expand the ALICE Initiative to include substantial involvement from interested community based, business, and government sector partners. To be kept informed or become involved in this work, email us at Impact@auw.org

All previous ALICE reports were developed in partnership with the United for ALICE research team using a combination of 14 data sources like the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Through a data formula, the sources produced the Household Survival Budget and population estimates for households above and below the ALICE Threshold, and those in poverty. The 2022 ALICE Report was developed in collaboration with The Bank of Hawai‛i Foundation, United for ALICE, Financial Health Network, and completed by Anthology Research Group. The research team used primary research (vs. secondary like the U.S. Census Bureau data) that applied a mixed-mode approach.

The decision to collect primary data from Hawai‛i residents was made because the US Census Bureau determined the 2020 Census data did not meet its standards of quality for public release and thus was not available to use by United for ALICE to calculate updated ALICE figures from 2020. The change also allowed for a unique opportunity for the ALICE Study to include questions from both United for ALICE and Financial Health Network, both of which published studies in 2018 and 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to better learn about the financial impacts and changes that COVID-19 had on Hawai‛i households and financial behaviors. United for ALICE and Financial Health Network researchers both participated to publish the 2022 report, and the research team has determined the sample and methodology allow for comparisons to past reports for both.

The methodology change will not likely be permanent. It was done to address what we hope is a one-time gap in publicly available Census data. In 2023, Aloha United Way will release a standard report based on the United for ALICE methodology and data sources, which will fill in the picture of how ALICE households were impacted before, during, and post-pandemic. Reports based on future US Census data will be available every two years and Aloha United Way, Bank of Hawai‛i, The Hawai‛i Community Foundation and United for ALICE will evaluate if future local data collection efforts may be beneficial and viable in future years.

Additionally, Aloha United Way and Hawai‛i Community Foundation are this year working with ALICE Initiative Grantees to develop shared metrics demonstrating collective impact and upward economic mobility for ALICE households. Over time, this group seeks to align programmatic data with the ALICE report research to help to measure long term systemic change.

The typical minimum sample size for a statewide proportional to population survey is n=400 (sample size of 400 completed surveys), which provides a margin of error of +/-4.90% at the 95% level of confidence. Most surveys in Hawai‛i are between 400 and 1,000 respondents, the latter of which is considered a larger survey. It is rare to have surveys of more than 2,000 individuals that are not commissioned by government.

The ALICE 2022 Report includes 2,391 completed surveys and is considered one of the largest surveys of Hawai‛i residents by sample size. The benefits of such a large sample size include a more reliable margin of error of +/- 2.00% at the 95% level of confidence, and the ability to review subsets of the data with more confidence (such as neighbor island counties, specific ethnic groups, etc.).
Is the data in the report collected by Anthology or were American Community Survey (ACS) figures also used? The ACS data did not meet standards for public release by the US Census Bureau and thus was not used by the United for ALICE research or Anthology research teams. The 2022 report relies on Anthology Research Group’s telephone and online survey data.

Yes, mortgage debt was considered in this calculation. Additionally, the Financial Health Network questions regarding debt include bank loans, student loans, money owed to people, medical debt, past-due bills, credit card balances, and other household debt identified through the survey.

The Household Survival Budget includes food costs. The Household Survival Budget estimates in the report were adjusted for inflation and rising costs.