Leave of Absence in Hawaii: Family, Medical, and Military

A leave of absence in Hawaii can come from several different laws at once, and which one you use depends on why you need the time off. The state’s own family leave law covers more relatives than federal law and reaches smaller employers in some ways and larger ones in others. Temporary Disability Insurance pays part of your wages when you’re the one who’s sick. Separate statutes protect time off for military service, jury duty, voting, domestic violence recovery, and organ donation. Eligibility rules, benefit amounts, and notice deadlines are not the same across these programs, so the details matter.

Hawaii Family Leave Law

The Hawaii Family Leave Law, codified at HRS Chapter 398, gives eligible employees up to four weeks of unpaid leave per calendar year for the birth or adoption of a child, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition.¹ It does not cover your own illness or injury. For that, you look to Temporary Disability Insurance or the federal FMLA.

The HFLL applies to employers with 100 or more employees for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. To qualify, you need six consecutive months with the same employer. There is no minimum-hours requirement, so part-time, temporary, and on-call workers can qualify.²

Hawaii’s definition of “family member” is broader than the federal one. You can take HFLL leave to care for a child of any age, a spouse, a reciprocal beneficiary, a sibling, a grandchild, a grandparent, or a parent-in-law with a serious health condition.² The FMLA covers only a spouse, child, or parent.

The four weeks can be taken all at once or broken into smaller blocks across the year. Unused leave does not carry over. The leave itself is unpaid, but you choose whether to substitute accrued paid leave. Your employer cannot force you to use vacation time if you’d rather use sick leave.²

Federal FMLA and How It Overlaps

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period.³ Qualifying reasons include the birth or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition, your own serious health condition, and qualifying needs tied to a family member’s military deployment.

Eligibility is tighter than under state law. Your employer must have at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite, you must have been employed for at least 12 months, and you must have logged at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before leave starts.⁴ That hours threshold cuts off many part-time workers who would still qualify under the HFLL.

When a single absence qualifies under both laws, the leaves run concurrently. Your four HFLL weeks count against your 12 FMLA weeks at the same time, so a four-week family leave leaves you with up to eight weeks of FMLA still available that year. Because the HFLL covers reciprocal beneficiaries, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and parents-in-law, some situations are HFLL-only and give you four weeks of state leave with no federal backup. The reverse is also true: FMLA covers your own serious health condition and the HFLL does not, so a worker recovering from surgery relies on FMLA and, for income, on TDI.

Temporary Disability Insurance

Hawaii requires employers to provide short-term disability benefits when you can’t work because of a non-work-related illness or injury. This is the program most workers lean on when they personally cannot show up, because it is the one that actually replaces wages.

Under a statutory plan, benefits start on the eighth day of disability and continue for up to 26 weeks. The weekly benefit is 58% of your average weekly wages, capped at $871 per week for 2026.⁵ Employers with approved self-insured plans may offer different benefit amounts, waiting periods, or durations as long as the plan meets or exceeds the statutory floor.⁶

To be eligible, you need at least 14 weeks of Hawaii employment in the past 52 weeks where you worked 20 or more hours per week and earned at least $400 in each of those weeks. The 14 weeks don’t need to be consecutive or with the same employer, but you must be currently employed when the disability begins.⁶

Watch the filing deadlines. You must submit a TDI claim within 90 days of the start of the disability. Later than that and you may lose part of your benefits. File more than 26 weeks late and you forfeit them entirely. If the claim is denied, your employer must send written notice explaining why. Employers may share the cost of TDI with employees, but your contribution cannot exceed 0.5% of weekly wages.⁶

Military Leave

Military leave is protected by both federal and state law. The federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act covers all public and private employees who leave a civilian job for military service. The core protection is reemployment: after completing service, you are entitled to return to your prior position or an equivalent one with the same seniority, status, and pay. The cumulative service limit is generally five years with the same employer. How soon you must report back after service depends on the length of service, with reporting windows ranging from the next regular work period for short stints up to 90 days after service longer than 180 days.⁷

Hawaii adds a paid benefit for public workers. If you hold a state civil service or exempt position with an appointment of at least six months and serve in the Hawaii National Guard or another reserve component, you are entitled to up to 15 working days of paid military leave per calendar year when called to active duty. A second call-up in the same year can draw from the next year’s allotment in advance.⁸ Private-sector workers do not receive this state-paid benefit, though USERRA’s job protection still applies.

Jury Duty and Voting

Hawaii law prohibits employers from firing, threatening, or otherwise retaliating against any employee for receiving a jury summons, responding to it, or serving on a jury. Violating the protection is a petty misdemeanor. An employee discharged for jury service can file a civil action within 90 days of the termination to recover up to six weeks of lost wages, reinstatement, and reasonable attorney’s fees.⁹ Hawaii does not require private employers to pay wages during jury service. Federal jury service has its own protection under 28 U.S.C. § 1875, which shields employees from discharge or coercion and provides civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation.

For elections, you’re entitled to up to two consecutive hours off, excluding lunch and rest periods, to vote on election day. Your employer cannot dock your pay, reschedule your hours, or penalize you for taking the time. If your work schedule already gives you two consecutive non-work hours while the polls are open, the leave requirement does not apply. And if you take the time off but don’t actually vote, your employer can deduct the corresponding wages.¹⁰

Domestic and Sexual Violence Victim Leave

Hawaii’s Victims Protections law under HRS Chapter 378 requires employers to provide unpaid leave for employees who are victims of domestic or sexual violence. The entitlement depends on employer size: up to 30 days per calendar year at employers with 50 or more workers, and up to five days at smaller employers.¹¹ The law also requires reasonable accommodations for employees who are victims, and additional time beyond the statutory minimum can qualify as a reasonable accommodation in some situations. Retaliation for requesting or using victim leave is prohibited.

Organ and Bone Marrow Donor Leave

Under HRS Chapter 398A, your employer must provide up to 30 days per calendar year for organ donation and up to seven days for bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donation. Written verification of donor status and medical necessity is required.¹²

The leave does not count as a break in continuous service for seniority, salary adjustments, sick leave accrual, or vacation. Your employer must also maintain and pay for your group health coverage for the full duration of the leave on the same terms as if you were actively working.¹² One caveat: your employer can require you to use up to three days of accrued paid leave before donor leave begins for bone marrow donation, and up to two weeks for organ donation.

Bereavement Leave

Hawaii does not require employers to offer bereavement leave. Whether you get paid or unpaid time off after a death in the family depends on your employer’s policy or an applicable collective bargaining agreement. If your employer has a written policy, read it carefully, because coverage often varies by the deceased’s relationship to you.

Notice, Certification, and Health Coverage

How much notice you owe depends on whether the need for leave is foreseeable. Under the FMLA, when you know in advance that leave is coming, you must provide at least 30 days’ notice when practical. When the situation changes suddenly, you must give notice as soon as possible.¹³

Your employer can require medical certification for a serious health condition. You generally have 15 calendar days to return the completed form, and failing to return it can cost you FMLA protection for absences after that window.¹⁴ The HFLL similarly permits certification when leave is to care for a family member with a serious health condition.² Ignoring a certification request is where many workers lose protection they otherwise would have had.

Employers covered by the FMLA must maintain your group health insurance during leave on the same terms as if you were still working. If your employer covered family members before the leave started, that coverage must continue, and any mid-leave benefit changes apply to you as they would to any active employee.¹⁵ Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act adds a separate layer for most private-sector workers who work at least 20 hours per week and earn at least 86.67 times the state minimum wage per month; the employer must pay at least half the premium, and the employee’s share cannot exceed 1.5% of monthly gross earnings.¹⁶

Both the HFLL and FMLA require job restoration. When you return, your employer must place you in your original position or an equivalent one with the same pay, benefits, and working conditions. The obligation ends if the employment relationship would have terminated regardless of the leave, such as a company-wide layoff that would have cut your role anyway.¹⁵

If Your Employer Violates Your Leave Rights

An employer that interferes with your FMLA rights or retaliates against you can be made to pay. Under 29 U.S.C. § 2617, you can recover lost wages, salary, and employment benefits, plus interest, and the court adds an equal amount in liquidated damages unless the employer proves good faith. The court can also order reinstatement or promotion and must award reasonable attorney’s fees. You have two years from the last violation to sue, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁷

The HFLL has its own enforcement structure under HRS 398-21 through 398-29, with complaint filing, investigation and conciliation, administrative hearings, and a right to bring a civil action. Specific penalty amounts and remedies are set out in HRS 398-26 and 398-29. Complaints go to the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

USERRA violations can produce back pay, lost benefits, and reinstatement. Service members can file complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, which investigates and may refer cases to the Department of Justice.¹⁸ And for jury service, the 90-day civil-action deadline is short, so a worker fired over jury duty needs to act quickly to preserve the right to recover.⁹

1
Justia Law. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Chapter 398 – Section 398-3
2
Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Hawaii Family Leave Law
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. The Employee’s Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act
5
Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. 2026 Maximum Weekly Wage Base and Maximum Weekly Benefit Amount
6
Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. About Temporary Disability Insurance
7
eCFR. 20 CFR Part 1002 Subpart C – Eligibility For Reemployment
8
Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services. What You May Need to Know About Your Benefits When You Go on Military Leave
9
Justia Law. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 32 Chapter 612 – Section 612-25
10
Hawaii Office of Elections. Time Off for Voting on Election Day
11
Hawaii Civil Rights Commission. Victims of Domestic or Sexual Violence Employment Protections FAQ
12
Justia Law. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Chapter 398A – Section 398A-3
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Employee Notice Requirements under the Family and Medical Leave Act
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Medical Certification under the Family and Medical Leave Act
15
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.209 – Maintenance of Employee Benefits
16
Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. About Prepaid Health Care
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2617 – Enforcement
18
U.S. Department of Labor. Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act