Hawaii Prevailing Wage Requirements for Public Works

Hawaii’s prevailing wage requirements for public works apply to every state- or county-funded construction contract over $2,000, and they obligate the contractor to pay each laborer and mechanic the hourly wage and fringe benefit rate set for that classification by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), submit certified payrolls weekly, follow Hawaii’s own overtime rules, and keep full payroll records for three years. The penalties for falling short escalate quickly: 25% of back wages on a first violation, 100% on a second, 200% plus a three-year suspension from all public work on a third.

Which Projects Are Covered

Chapter 104 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes applies to any construction contract over $2,000 where a governmental contracting agency is a party. The definition of that agency is wide: any person or entity that directly or indirectly causes a public work to be built, including public-private partnerships. “Contract” sweeps in agreements, purchase orders, and vouchers for public work construction.¹

If the contracting agency forgot to include the prevailing wage clause in your contract, you still owe the rates. The statute says in plain terms that a missing contract clause is not a defense.¹

Exemptions are narrow. Contracts at or below $2,000 are outside the law. The only other carve-out covers certain affordable housing: experimental and demonstration housing under HRS Section 46-15, or housing developed under Chapter 201H, when total project cost is under $500,000 and the bidder or developer is a private nonprofit corporation.¹

What You Have to Pay

Every classification has two pieces: a basic hourly rate and an hourly fringe benefit rate. The basic rate is the modal rate, meaning the wage paid to the greatest number of workers in that classification on similar projects statewide. When fringe benefits are a prevailing practice for the classification, the DLIR director calculates the hourly cost and sets that as the fringe component.¹

Hawaii rates also carry a floor: they cannot be less than the federal Davis-Bacon rate for the matching classification on public work in the state. If the modal survey comes in lower, the federal rate takes over as the minimum.¹

DLIR updates the Wage Rate Schedule twice a year, around February 15 and September 15, and issues addenda in between. The current bulletin is Wage Rate Schedule Bulletin 510, dated February 16, 2026. Current schedules and apprentice schedules are available from the DLIR’s Research and Statistics office, which also answers questions at (808) 586-8799.²

Satisfying the Fringe Benefit Portion

You can meet the fringe component two ways. One is to make employer contributions to bona fide benefit plans — health insurance, pension, vacation, continuing education, or similar programs. The other is to pay the fringe amount directly to the worker as additional cash wages. Either way, your certified payroll has to itemize fringe costs by category: health and welfare, pension, vacation, training, and anything else.³

Hawaii’s Overtime Rules Are Not the Federal Ones

On a Hawaii public works project, overtime is owed for every hour worked on a Saturday, Sunday, or state legal holiday, and for any hours over eight in a single day. The 40-hour weekly threshold familiar from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not control. A worker who puts in nine hours on a Tuesday earns overtime for that ninth hour even if they do not work another day that week.¹

Where a collective bargaining agreement sets the basic hourly rate for a classification, the overtime and premium rates in that CBA apply. Where no CBA covers the work, the basic rate used for overtime calculations cannot drop below the DLIR director’s prevailing basic rate.¹

Weekly Certified Payrolls and Three-Year Records

The general contractor submits certified copies of payrolls — its own and every subcontractor’s — to the contracting agency each week. Each payroll comes with a fringe benefit reporting form breaking out health and welfare, pension, vacation, training, and any other fringe payments. The certification confirms that wages meet or exceed the director’s determination and that each worker’s listed classification matches the work actually performed.³

Payroll records for every laborer and mechanic on site have to be kept during the project and preserved for three years after it ends. Each record needs the worker’s name, correct classification, pay rate, itemized fringe benefits, daily and weekly hours, deductions, and actual wages paid. When the contracting agency or DLIR asks for records, you have ten days to produce them. Not producing records, not answering an information request, or falsifying records triggers the investigation-interference penalties under HRS 104-22.³

General Contractor Liability for Subcontractors

A general contractor’s exposure does not stop at its own payroll. The GC is responsible for submitting certified payrolls for every subcontractor on the project, and the contracting agency reports any discrepancies it spots to both the GC and the DLIR director.³

If a sub underpays its workers, the contracting agency can order the general contractor to pay the back wages and penalties. The penalty provisions in HRS 104-24 create joint and several liability, so both the contractor and the subcontractor can be held responsible for the full amount owed.⁴

Penalties for Violations

The penalty scale rises steeply with repeat violations, and each employee and each project counts as a separate offense for underpayment.

First violation: 25% of back wages owed, or $250 per offense capped at $2,500, whichever is greater.
Second violation within two years of the first: 100% of back wages owed, or $500 per offense capped at $5,000, whichever is greater.
Third violation within three years of the second: 200% of back wages owed, or $1,000 per offense capped at $10,000, whichever is greater, plus a mandatory three-year suspension from all new public works.

⁴

Every notice of violation names both the firm and the individual. “Firm” takes in corporations, LLCs, and partnerships. “Person” takes in sole proprietors and the principal responsible managing employee who holds the contractor’s license. Dissolving the entity and reopening under a new name does not shake the record.⁴

During the three-year suspension, no contract can be awarded to the suspended person or firm, or to any firm, corporation, partnership, or association in which that person or firm has any direct or indirect interest. Any contract awarded in violation of the suspension is void. The same suspension applies to contractors who fail to make workers whole or fail to pay assessed penalties.⁴

Obstructing an Investigation

The DLIR’s Wage Standards Division can enter job sites unannounced, examine records during or after a project, subpoena records, and interview workers on the clock. No worker complaint is required to open an investigation. Refusing to produce records, blocking worker interviews, or falsifying documents forces the contracting agency to freeze further payments until the DLIR confirms the obstruction has stopped. The DLIR also assesses $10,000 per project for the initial interference and $1,000 per project for every additional day of noncooperation.⁵

Payment of Back Wages

When the director determines workers were underpaid, the contracting agency pays the owed wages directly to the affected workers out of withheld contract funds within 60 days. The agency can also order the contractor to pay any back wages, overtime, or assessed penalties the contractor or any sub owes, and must report the violation to the DLIR director.⁶

When Federal Money Is Also in the Project

Projects that take federal funding alongside state or county money can be subject to both Chapter 104 and the federal Davis-Bacon Act. Compare classifications under each law and pay the higher rate. Because Hawaii law pegs its rates at no less than the matching Davis-Bacon rate, the state figure will meet or exceed the federal floor.¹

Dual funding means dual paperwork. You may be filing Hawaii’s weekly certified payrolls with the state contracting agency and federal certified payrolls (typically on DOL Form WH-347) with the federal agency behind the grant. One payroll system that captures every data point both programs ask for is the cleanest way to keep up.

How a Worker Complaint Starts a Case

A worker who believes they were underpaid on a public works job can file a written, signed complaint with the Wage Standards Division. No appointment is required; workers can contact the WSD on Oahu or the nearest district office by phone, mail, or in person. A specialist runs a preliminary interview to figure out which law applies and whether the complaint is timely, then provides the formal complaint form.⁷

Chapter 104 complaints go to investigation rather than a hearing. Cases are generally handled in the order received, and the first contact from an assigned specialist typically comes within about six weeks. The DLIR keeps the complainant’s name confidential from the employer unless the worker gives permission to release it.⁵

1
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 9 Chapter 104 – Section 104-2
2
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Prevailing Wages – Wage Rate Schedule
3
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 9 Chapter 104 – Section 104-3
4
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 9 Chapter 104 – Section 104-24
5
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 9 Chapter 104 – Section 104-22
6
FindLaw. Hawaii Revised Statutes Division 1 Government – Section 104-21
7
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Filing a Complaint with Wage Standards Division