Hawaii does not have a statewide law that requires private employers to provide paid sick leave. As of 2026, there is no Hawaii statute setting a paid-sick-leave accrual rate, an annual cap, or a list of covered employers the way states like California, Washington, or New York have. If you work for a private business in Honolulu, Hilo, or anywhere else in the islands, whether you earn paid sick days depends almost entirely on your employer's own policy or a union contract — not on a state mandate. The one important state-run safety net is Hawaii's Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, which partially replaces wages when you cannot work because of a non-work-related illness or injury, but TDI is not the same as everyday paid sick leave.
This matters because many workers assume Hawaii guarantees paid sick time. It does not. Below is what Hawaii law actually provides, where the gaps are, and how to verify your rights with the right state agency.
The Baseline: No Mandatory Paid Sick Leave in Hawaii
There is no federal law requiring most private employers to provide paid sick leave either. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and requires overtime at one-and-a-half times your regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, but it says nothing about paid time off for illness. Paid sick leave, paid vacation, and holiday pay are generally left to the employer under federal law.
Hawaii follows that same approach for sick leave. The state has chosen not to enact a general paid-sick-time accrual law. So when an employer offers paid sick days, it is doing so voluntarily (or because a contract requires it), and the terms — how fast you accrue, how much you can bank, and what you can use it for — are set by that employer's handbook or your collective bargaining agreement.
Hawaii's own minimum wage is higher than the federal floor. As of 2026 Hawaii's minimum wage is scheduled to be $14.00 per hour under the state's step-increase law, rising toward $18.00 by 2028. Because these figures change on a set schedule, confirm the current rate with the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations before relying on it.
Temporary Disability Insurance: Hawaii's Real Wage-Replacement Program
What Hawaii does require is Temporary Disability Insurance. Under the Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance Law, most employers must provide TDI coverage that pays partial wage replacement when an employee is unable to work due to a non-work-related sickness or injury — including pregnancy and childbirth recovery. This is the closest thing Hawaii has to a statewide "sick pay" guarantee, but it is structured as short-term disability, not as accrued sick days.
Key features of TDI:
- Who is covered: Generally, employees who have worked at least 14 weeks of 20 or more hours for one or more Hawaii employers, earning at least $400 in the 52 weeks before the disability began, and who are in current employment.
- Waiting period: TDI benefits typically begin after a seven-day waiting period — it does not cover the first week, and it is not designed for a one-day cold.
- Benefit amount: Benefits are set as a percentage of your average weekly wages, up to a maximum weekly benefit that the state adjusts. Confirm the current weekly maximum and percentage with the state, because these figures are updated periodically.
- Duration: Benefits can continue for up to 26 weeks within a benefit year for a single period of disability.
- Work-related injuries are different: If your illness or injury is job-related, it falls under Hawaii's workers' compensation system, not TDI.
Employers may fund TDI through an insurance plan, a self-insured plan, or a collectively bargained plan, and they may require employees to contribute up to a capped share of the cost. Importantly, you can be required to use available paid sick leave before TDI kicks in if your employer offers it, which is one of the main ways the two interact.
No Local Paid-Sick-Leave Ordinances
Some states leave room for cities and counties to pass their own paid-sick-leave ordinances. Hawaii has not gone that route. There is no Honolulu, Maui County, Hawaii County, or Kauai County ordinance creating a county-level paid-sick-leave mandate. The rules are the same across all islands: no statewide accrual mandate, plus the statewide TDI program. Do not assume a county ordinance fills the gap — in Hawaii, it does not exist.