Intro to Hawaii Labor Laws

Hawaii has enacted the Captive Audience Prohibition Act, which expands Hawaii’s Unfair Labor Practices Law and prohibits employers from requiring employees to attend or participate in meetings or communications about the employer's views on religious or political matters. This law is designed to protect employees from being coerced into participating in discussions unrelated to their job duties; however, it still allows employers to conduct such meetings or communications if employee attendance is entirely voluntary.

Effective October 1, 2022, the minimum wage in Hawaii increased to $12 per hour. The Hawaii minimum wage will increase by $2 every two years until the minimum wage reaches $18 per hour in 2028.

As enacted earlier this year, a new law will prohibit Hawaii employers from inquiring about applicants’ salary histories during the application process. The law, effective January 1, 2019, also prohibits employers from retaliating or discriminating against employees for, or restricting employees from, the voluntary sharing of any salary information between employees.

On July 3, 2023, Governor Josh Green signed a law that will require Hawaii employers with 50 or more employees to post salary ranges in job postings. These salary disclosure requirements do not apply to internal job transfers or promotions. Further, this law expands existing equal pay protections to prohibit pay discrimination based on any protected category under Hawaii law, not limited to sex. Employees can now bring claims of pay discrimination based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion and more.

Last month, Hawaii updated its ban-the-box law to further restrict employer inquiries regarding applicants’ arrest and conviction records. In addition to prohibiting pre-offer inquiries altogether, the amended law now prohibits employers at the post-offer stage from considering felony convictions outside of the most recent 7 years or misdemeanor convictions outside of 5 years, excluding any periods of incarceration. This is a decrease from the previous permissible lookback period of 10 years.