What is Hawaii TDI and who has to provide it?

Temporary Disability Insurance (HRS ch. 392) — required at essentially every Hawaii employer, self-insured or through a state-approved plan, with up to 0.5% of wages deductible from employees. It covers non-work illness and injury, including pregnancy, after a 7-day waiting period.

How does the Hawaii Family Leave Law work?

At employers with 100+ employees, workers with 6 months of service get up to 4 weeks per year of job-protected leave for a birth, adoption, or a family member's serious health condition (2026 additions include military exigencies) — and may elect to apply up to 10 days of employer-provided accrued sick leave toward it.

When is the final paycheck due in Hawaii?

Fired: in full at the time of discharge, or no later than the next working day if immediate payment isn't possible. Quit: the next regular payday — or at quitting time if the employee gave at least a full pay period's notice.

Does a Hawaii employer have to pay out unused PTO at termination?

Per your written policy — Hawaii has no payout statute, but the DLIR enforces promised payouts as wages.

Can a Hawaii employer discipline an employee on TDI leave?

Treating a certified TDI absence as an attendance violation is the fast lane to a retaliation dispute — the absence is a documented insurance claim, not an unexcused string of days. Attendance policies should hand absences off to the TDI process at day 7 automatically.

Hawaii sick leave law & call-off rules

Q: Is paid sick leave required in Hawaii?

Not as accrued sick days — Hawaii has no accrual mandate and no county ordinances. Instead, mandatory Temporary Disability Insurance covers longer illnesses: 58% wage replacement from the 8th consecutive day off, for up to 26 weeks.

Hawaii never mandated sick-day accrual — it built an insurance system instead. Every employer must carry Temporary Disability Insurance: an employee off work with a non-work illness for more than seven days starts drawing 58% wage replacement on day eight, for up to 26 weeks. At 100+ employees the Hawaii Family Leave Law adds job-protected family leave. For attendance policy, week one is yours; week two belongs to the insurance system. Here is what applies in 2026.

Hawaii at a glance

Accrued sick leave mandate	None — short absences are policy-governed
TDI (mandatory insurance)	58% wage replacement from day 8 of a non-work illness, up to 26 weeks
HFLA	4 weeks job-protected family leave at 100+ employees; 10 sick days may be applied
Final paycheck (fired)	At discharge — or the next working day at latest
PTO payout at termination	Policy controls (DLIR enforces promised payouts as wages)
Voting leave	Repealed — all-mail elections since 2019
Meal & rest breaks	None for adults (16+)

Is paid sick leave required in Hawaii?

No accrued sick leave — but mandatory disability insurance. Under HRS ch. 392, essentially every Hawaii employer must provide TDI (self-insured or via a state-approved plan, with up to 0.5% of wages deductible from employees): 58% of average weekly wages, starting the 8th consecutive day of a non-work illness or injury (pregnancy included), for up to 26 weeks. The Hawaii Family Leave Law (HRS ch. 398) adds 4 weeks of job-protected family leave at 100+ employees, toward which employees may elect up to 10 days of employer-provided sick leave. No county adds a sick-leave ordinance.

How TDI and the HFLA shape attendance policy

TDI trigger	7 consecutive days off for a non-work illness/injury → benefits from day 8, up to 26 weeks at 58% (annual state max)
TDI eligibility	~14 weeks of Hawaii employment at 20+ hours/week and $400+ in wages
Claims	Medical certification (Form TDI-45) filed with the employer/carrier — a routing task, not an attendance judgment
HFLA (100+ employees)	4 weeks/year job-protected family leave (birth, adoption, family serious illness; 2026 adds military exigency); employee may apply up to 10 days of accrued sick leave
Retaliation	HFLA interference/retaliation prohibited; HRS 378-32 bars discharge over work-injury comp claims

The federal floor that still applies

FMLA

Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."

ADA

For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.

Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Hawaii

Hawaii is at-will with statutory carve-outs (work-injury discharge bars, HFLA retaliation), and short-absence attendance policy is genuinely yours to write — no accrual mandate, no notes restrictions, no points statute. The design constraint is the seventh day: an illness absence that crosses a week stops being an attendance event and becomes a TDI claim, with a medical certification and wage replacement handled through your carrier — pointing an employee for a certified TDI absence converts an insurance routine into a retaliation dispute. At 100+ employees, the HFLA adds a protected family-leave lane that accrued sick days can partially fund. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system that tracks consecutive days out is what flags the day-7 handoff before a supervisor mishandles it.

PTO payout and final paychecks

Scenario	Rule	Source
Employee is fired	In full at the time of discharge — no later than the next working day if immediate payment isn't possible	HRS § 388-3
Employee quits	Next regular payday — at quitting time if the employee gave a full pay period's notice	HRS § 388-3
Unused vacation / PTO	Policy or agreement controls; a promised payout is enforceable as wages	DLIR guidance
Enforcement	DLIR Wage Standards Division (TDI: Disability Compensation Division)	—

Hawaii's same-day/next-day discharge rule puts it in the fast tier with Utah and Massachusetts — final pay is part of the termination meeting. See how PTO accrual works.

Leave Hawaii employers must (and must not) provide

Leave type	Required?	Notes
TDI	Yes — insurance	Mandatory at essentially every employer; premiums shareable with employees up to 0.5% of wages
HFLA family leave	Yes at 100+ employees	4 weeks job-protected, after 6 months of service
Jury duty	Yes — unpaid	Discharge or coercion is a petty misdemeanor; suit within 90 days for reinstatement and up to 6 weeks' wages
Voting	No	The 2-hour law was repealed with all-mail elections (2019)
Military	Yes	USERRA (federal) plus Hawaii National Guard protections

The Hawaii employer's attendance playbook

Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.

Note: This is general information for Hawaii private-sector employers as of 2026, not legal advice. Federal contractors and public employers have additional rules, and laws change. Confirm specifics with qualified counsel.

Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.

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