As a Hawaii employee, your rights to family and medical leave come from two overlapping laws. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives qualifying workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year. The Hawaii Family Leave Law under HRS Chapter 398 adds up to four weeks per calendar year, with broader family coverage but one critical limit: it does not cover your own serious health condition. Which law protects you, and for how long, depends on your employer’s size, your tenure, and the reason you need time off.
Who Qualifies Under Each Law
Federal FMLA sets three thresholds. You must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), logged at least 1,250 actual hours of work in the 12 months before leave starts, and work at a location where your employer has 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. The hours count only time spent working, not paid vacation or sick time.
Hawaii’s state law uses different numbers. Under HRS 398-1, you qualify after just six consecutive months with your current employer, but the employer must have 100 or more employees on each working day during at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. The headcount includes part-time, temporary, and intermittent workers on the Hawaii payroll, plus anyone on paid or unpaid leave. It excludes laid-off workers and employees stationed on the mainland or abroad. There is no 75-mile rule under state law; if your employer’s total Hawaii headcount hits 100, you’re covered regardless of how spread out the workforce is across the islands.
Hawaii’s law applies to both private and public employers. The statutory definition of “employer” explicitly includes the State of Hawaii, its political subdivisions, and their instrumentalities.
What You Can Take Leave For
Federal FMLA covers four situations: the birth of your child or placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care; caring for your spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition; your own serious health condition that prevents you from doing your job; and certain qualifying needs arising from a spouse’s, child’s, or parent’s active-duty military service.
A “serious health condition” means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition involving either inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider. Chronic conditions like asthma or diabetes with occasional flare-ups qualify, as do pregnancy and prenatal care.
Hawaii’s four weeks are narrower in purpose but broader in family coverage. State leave can only be used for the birth or adoption of a child or to care for a family member with a serious health condition. The covered family members include your child, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, sibling, grandchild, or parent. Hawaii’s definition of “parent” is expansive: biological, foster, or adoptive parent, parent-in-law, stepparent, legal guardian, grandparent, or grandparent-in-law.
The gap matters. Hawaii’s state leave does not cover your own illness or injury. If you’re the one who’s sick, federal FMLA is the only job-protected option. If you don’t qualify for federal FMLA, Hawaii’s law will not fill that gap.
Federal FMLA also offers an expanded 26-workweek entitlement in a single 12-month period for employees caring for a covered servicemember (spouse, child, parent, or next of kin) with a serious injury or illness. Hawaii has no equivalent military caregiver leave.
How the Two Laws Work Together
When a situation qualifies under both laws, the leave runs concurrently. Your four weeks of Hawaii leave count against your 12 weeks of federal FMLA at the same time, so the combined maximum is 12 weeks, not 16.
Hawaii’s broader family definitions still matter. Federal FMLA doesn’t cover leave to care for a sibling, grandchild, or parent-in-law. For those relationships, Hawaii’s four weeks is your only job-protected option, and the federal clock never starts.
Hawaii leave can be taken intermittently within a calendar year, so you don’t have to use the four weeks in one block. Unused leave does not roll over. Anything you don’t use by year-end is gone.
Getting Paid During Leave
Both laws are unpaid by default, but you have options to keep income flowing.
Under HRS 398-4, if your employer provides sick leave, you can use up to 10 days of accrued sick leave per calendar year for family leave purposes. A collective bargaining agreement can authorize more than 10 days, but that cap is the statutory default. Employers can also require you to use accrued vacation or other paid time off concurrently with your protected leave. Once paid leave is exhausted, the rest of your protected time is unpaid.
For your own medical condition, Hawaii’s Temporary Disability Insurance program provides partial wage replacement. TDI pays 58 percent of your average weekly wages, starting on the eighth day of disability and continuing up to 26 weeks. To qualify, you need at least 14 weeks of Hawaii employment during which you worked 20 or more hours per week and earned at least $400 each week, within the 52 weeks before your disability started. The maximum weekly benefit is adjusted annually by the state. Your employer may deduct up to 0.5 percent of your weekly wages toward TDI premiums, capped at $7.50 per week in 2026.
TDI and FMLA can run simultaneously. If your own serious health condition qualifies you for both, you receive TDI payments while your FMLA clock counts down. Because Hawaii’s family leave law doesn’t apply to your own condition, TDI is the main wage-replacement path for qualifying personal disabilities.
Giving Notice and Providing Certification
If you can see the leave coming, give notice early. Under federal FMLA, you must provide at least 30 days’ written notice before foreseeable leave, such as a planned surgery or expected birth. If you have less lead time, notify your employer as soon as practicable.
Hawaii’s administrative rules add specific short-notice timelines. For foreseeable leave where 30 days isn’t possible, you must give at least verbal notice within two working days before leave starts, followed by written confirmation as soon as practicable. For unforeseeable leave, verbal notice is required within two working days of learning you need leave, or as soon as circumstances allow. If you give timely verbal notice, your employer cannot deny or delay the leave while waiting for your written follow-up.
Your notice should state the general reason, the expected start date, and how long you anticipate being out. You don’t need a diagnosis in writing, but you need to say enough that your employer can determine whether the absence qualifies.
Your employer can require medical certification. Under federal FMLA, the certification must include the date the serious health condition began, its expected duration, relevant medical facts, and either a statement that you’re unable to perform your job functions (for your own condition) or that you’re needed to provide care (for a family member). For intermittent leave, the certification should also explain the medical necessity and expected frequency and duration. The U.S. Department of Labor publishes optional forms for this; employers may use their own as long as they don’t demand more information than the DOL forms require.
For Hawaii family leave, employers may request certification confirming the family member’s serious health condition and your relationship to them. Because Hawaii leave doesn’t cover your own health, the certification will always relate to the family member you’re caring for.
Returning to Your Job and Keeping Health Coverage
Both laws guarantee restoration to your same position or an equivalent one with the same pay, benefits, and working conditions, including shift and location. HRS 398-7 mirrors the federal rule for state leave. You keep the benefits you accrued before leave, though you don’t continue accruing seniority or benefits during unpaid leave itself.
One exception applies under both laws: if your employer conducts a legitimate layoff while you’re out and your position would have been eliminated regardless, reinstatement isn’t required. You keep whatever seniority rights the employer’s layoff-and-recall system provides.
Federal FMLA also requires your employer to maintain your group health insurance on the same terms as if you were still working. Family coverage continues if you had it before. The protection extends to medical, surgical, dental, vision, mental health, and substance abuse treatment. You remain responsible for your share of the premium; if you’re on paid leave, it comes out of your paycheck, and if you’re on unpaid leave, you and your employer need to arrange another payment method.
If you drop coverage during FMLA leave, you have the right to be reinstated to the same plan at the same coverage level when you return, with no waiting periods, physicals, or pre-existing condition exclusions.
If Your Rights Are Violated
Both laws make it illegal for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny your leave rights, or to retaliate against you for requesting leave, filing a complaint, or participating in a related investigation.
For federal FMLA violations, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or bring a private lawsuit. Remedies include lost wages and benefits, interest, and liquidated damages equal to the total of lost wages plus interest, effectively doubling the award. A court can reduce liquidated damages if the employer proves the violation was in good faith. You generally have two years from the date of the violation to file suit, or three years if the violation was willful.
For Hawaii Family Leave Law violations, file a written complaint with the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Wage Standards Division. The state has its own deadlines, so contact the Wage Standards Division promptly. Waiting too long can forfeit your claim.