United States – Hawaii (2023)

Capital

Honolulu

Currency

United States Dollar (USD)

Date Format

mm/dd/yyyy

Fiscal Year

1 January- 31 December

Employer

Employee

Employee

Hawaii adheres to the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA), and overtime is paid when employees work more than 40 hours in a week. The employer must pay 150% of the regular salary rate for the extra hours worked as overtime. Similarly, if employees are scheduled to work on weekends or rest days, no additional payment is required. However, should an Employer request an employee to work in exceptional circumstances on these days, then overtime will be payable at 150% of the regular salary rate for the extra hours worked.

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of theDepartment of Labour(DOL) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the FLSA.

It is common for an employer to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain family and medical reasons (maternity leave, serious illnesses or if the employee needs to care for a spouse or child).

Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for at least one year, completed a minimum of 1,250 hours over the past year, and worked at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

FMLA eligible employees are entitled to:

• Twelve working weeks of leave in any one year for a child’s birth and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.
• The employee may be entitled to leave for the adoption or foster care of a child and care for the newly placed child within one year of placement.
• To care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a severe health condition.
• A serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job.
• any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty.”

OR

• Twenty-six working weeks of leave during a single one-year period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

Hawaii has its Family Leave laws (HFLL) that complement the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Employers with at least 100 employees are required to provide employees four weeks of unpaid leave for parenting. Employees who worked for six consecutive months for the employer, regardless of the amount of time they work per day, are eligible for this leave which the employee can use for the birth or adoption of a child, care for a child or spouse, or parent with an illness.

Hawaii also has an administrative code that provides job protection for an employee when taking leave due to pregnancy-related disability or childbirth and ensures employers make reasonable adjustments to the work environment to accommodate.

In addition, Hawaii has a Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) Program, which provides eligible employees with partial pay during their leave due to a temporary disability caused by pregnancy or childbirth. Suppose paid leave is less than four weeks. In that case, the additional period of leave may be unpaid, and employees may substitute any of their accrued paid leave (sick, vacation, personal, or family leave) for any part of the four-week period).

PAID MATERNITY LEAVE (DAYS)

Hawaii law states that all employers must provide their full-time employees job-protected but unpaid time off from work to perform their duty as jurors or as a witness in a case, responding to a subpoena: or acting as a plaintiff or defendant in the courts. Employees must provide a copy of the jury summons to the employer as evidence of requirement.

Hawaii law requires all employers to grant their employees who are registered to vote up to two hours of paid leave to vote in any municipal, county, state, federal primary, or general election. Employees must provide reasonable notice to their employers to take time off to vote.

In addition to the federal law USERRA, Hawaii law provides protection against discrimination for members of U.S. armed forces, reserves, National Guard, commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, and any other category of persons designated by the president in a time of war or emergency.

Except in mass dismissals or as provided for in an employment contract or a collective bargaining agreement, U.S. law does not impose a formal “notice period” to terminate an individual employment relationship, and employment is stipulated “at will.” This means that either the employer or the employee may end the employment relationship without giving either notice or reason, provided it is not illegal, notable discrimination on the grounds of a category protected by law, etc., and as per the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

The employment contracts of executives and other highly skilled individuals often incorporate a “just cause termination” clause which mandates that the employer may only terminate the employee for “cause” and lists the permissible grounds. In such cases, the parties negotiate the foundations for a “just cause” termination case-by-case.

In Hawaii, most employees are employed “at-will,” and either party can terminate the employment relationship without notice. In Hawaii, pay out of unused vacation time is not required by law. Generally though employers do pay employees for unused vacation days, provided the employee gives advanced notice of resignation.

There is no official notice period, but general practice is to give two weeks’ notice.

In mass dismissal cases the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) must be followed, and employers must give 60 days’ notice to impacted employees.

Foreign nationals without permanent resident status or a work visa are not permitted to work in the United States. An employer seeking to hire a foreign national may file a petition with the United States Department of Homeland Security/ United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) for an employment visa on behalf of the prospective employee.

If the petition is approved, the prospective employee must obtain a “visa stamp” from a United States embassy or consulate (Canadian citizens are exempt from this requirement). To get a temporary U.S. work visa, an employer must file a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). An approved petition must be part of the visa request; the types of visas include:

• H-1B – for applicants with a college degree hired to do specialised work. The visa is valid for three years and can be extended for an additional three years. The visa is connected to the employer that filed the petition. If there is a change of employer, the new employer must repeat the process. There are 65,000 H-1B visas available each year.
• H-1B1 – for applicants with a college degree from Chile and Singapore. The US government grants up to 1,400 visas to Chilean citizens and 5,400 from Singapore each year.
• H-2A – for temporary or seasonal agriculture work. It is limited to citizens of qualified countries. Usually valid for up to 1 year and can be extended to a maximum of 3 years.
• H-2B – for temporary non-agricultural work. These visas are limited to citizens of qualified countries. Usually valid for up to 1 year and can be extended to a maximum of 3 years.
• L – for intercompany transfers (people transferred from a foreign company to a US branch of the company.) The applicant must have been employed at the company for a year before the transfer and work in a managerial level position or higher with specialised knowledge.
• 0 – for people with extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business, or athletics.

The standard procedure is to obtain a short-term work visa and then apply for an immigrant visa after the employee has started working in the United States.

For those seeking employment-based immigrant visas:

• E-1 – Highest priority employment for those with extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business, and athletics.
• E-2 – for those with advanced degrees or exceptional ability.
• E-3 – for skilled workers and professionals, as well as unskilled workers.
• E-4 – Members of certain immigrant groups.
• E-5 – Immigrant investors in US companies (substantial investment)

Alternatively, an employer may sponsor a potential employee’s application for permanent resident status, referred to as a “green card,” if the employee can establish that the potential employee is a multinational executive/manager transferee, has unique skills, or has been offered a job in the United States. The employer must have been unable to recruit a U.S. worker who meets the position’s minimum requirements.

All employers are obligated to verify that all individuals they employ are authorised to work in the United States.

Version History

All questions are answered by our in-house compliance department working in conjunction with our local in-country partner for this specific country