airport parking price hikes effective 2/1/24

[terracore]

They gotta pay for the new minimum wage somehow...

Damn straight!

The new minimum hourly wage is going to kill the Airport Parking business!

Never mind that Scott Salmirs, CEO of ABM Industries that owns ABM Parking who runs the Hilo Airport Parking lot along with all the other airport parking lots at all Hawaii Airports along with most airport parking lots across the country made in 2022 a base salary of 1.0 million, non equity incentive income of 1.8 million as well as stock awards valued at 5.5 million and a measly 12 thousand in other income for a total of 8.3 million. 

Granted that was his 2022 income as 2023 numbers have not been released. 

ABM Industries has a 2.8 billion market capitalization value, with total revenues north of 8 billion, but I’m sure the half dozen Hilo Airport parking employees who may be entitled to the new minimum wage of $14.00 per hour is the sole cause of this price increase.

These type of corporations exist to maximize profits for the shareholders.  Hiring a CEO willing to work for minimum wage would certainly help to maximize profits.  I'm shocked more corporations don't pay their CEOs minimum wage because I can't think of a single reason why that might not work out for them.  As far as their $8 billion revenue, reportedly most of what they collect from airports get paid to the airports for things like paying living wages to airport employees for doing things like.... running an airport.  Most airports are expected to be financially self sufficient, some are even expected to operate at a profit so unrelated bureaucracies can help to waste money.

I used to drive to Kona to fly to the madland but at $24/day it will be cheaper for me to get dropped off at Hilo and fly to Honolulu with all the wasted carbon that entails.  So instead of getting $15/day from me they won't be getting anything.  From the comments I read a lot of the airport parking spaces are being taken by Turo participants, so there are plenty of other people willing to pay.

But the article didn't mention "living wages" as a reason for the price increases:

The projected revenue from the parking rate increases at the neighbor island facilities will be used for future improvements including:

• Consideration for a new employee parking lot for Kahului Airport.
  
  
• Estimated $10 million parking lot expansion for Kona International Airport.
  
  
• Estimated $6 million parking lot expansion for Hilo International Airport.
  
  
• Estimated $5 million parking lot expansion for Lῑhuʻe Airport.
  
  
• New parking equipment and stall counters at Kona International Airport. The parking concessionaire has committed to a $600,000 investment in new parking equipment, exit and entry lane overhead canopies, signage, and stall counters.
  
  
• Improvements to parking equipment at Hilo International Airport. The parking concessionaire has committed to investing between $200,000 and $300,000 to install parking revenue control system equipment.
  
  
• Improvements to parking equipment at Lῑhuʻe Airport. The parking concessionaire has committed to a minimum investment of $700,000 to add stall counters and the ancillary equipment and software needed to display available stalls online.