Article
5 min read
What is Hawaii’s Family Leave Law (HFLL) in 2025?
PEO
Author
Shannon Ongaro
Last Update
June 13, 2025
Published
June 09, 2025
Key takeaways
- Hawaii's Family Leave Law (HFLL) offers employees up to four weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave per year for family caregiving, childbirth, or adoption.
- HFLL differs from the federal FMLA in eligibility criteria and coverage scope, notably including siblings and reciprocal beneficiaries.
- Deel PEO expertly manages payroll and compliance, simplifying your adherence to Hawaii’s HFLL and upcoming paid leave changes.
From tracking who qualifies for job‐protected, unpaid leave to assembling timely documentation and juggling overlapping rules like FMLA, HR teams can quickly find themselves stretched thin when trying to understand Hawaii's family leave laws.
Here's a clear, step-by-step guide to HFLL eligibility, entitlements, and notice requirements, and how Deel can support your team.
What is Hawaii’s family leave law (HFLL)?
The Hawaii Family Leave Law (HFLL) provides job-protected leave for family reasons, including the birth of a child or caregiving. The leave is unpaid.
However, in 2025, Hawaii lawmakers are advancing proposals for a paid family leave program that will build on the existing HFLL.
What HFLL covers
The leave entitlements are per year and not per leave. This means that an employee may take leave for up to 4 weeks in total for any combination of reasons covered by the law.
| Leave type | Description | Length of leave |
|---|---|---|
| Birth of a child | Employees can take leave to care for a newborn child | 4 weeks |
| Adoption of a child | Leave is available for the adoption of a child | 4 weeks |
| Care for a family member | Care for a child, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, sibling, or parent with a serious health condition | 4 weeks |
See also: State-by-State Guide to Maternity Leave in the United States
Eligibility and applicability
Employee eligibility
- Employees must have worked for their employer for at least 6 consecutive months
Employer applicability
- Employer must have at least 100 employees during 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year
HFLL job protection
The HFLL provides job-protected leave, meaning that employees are entitled to be reinstated to their same or an equivalent position upon their return from leave.
How to apply to HFLL
Employees must provide at least 30 days' notice or as soon as practicable in the cases of unforeseen leave.
Employers may require medical certification or documentation to verify eligibility for the leave. This certification should include the date the condition giving rise to the leave commenced, its probable duration, and the appropriate medical facts.
See also: Comprehensive Guide to Payroll Taxes in Hawaii
The HFLL and FMLA
The Hawaii Family Leave Law (HFLL) and the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are both designed to provide job-protected leave for certain family and medical reasons, but they have different eligibility requirements and coverage. When an employee is eligible for both HFLL and FMLA, the two laws interact in the following ways:
Concurrent leave
Leave taken under HFLL generally runs concurrently with leave taken under FMLA. This means that if an employee takes four weeks of leave under HFLL for a reason that is also covered by FMLA, those four weeks will count towards the employee's 12-week FMLA entitlement.
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Different eligibility requirements
An employee might be eligible for leave under one law but not the other. For example, HFLL applies to employers with at least 100 employees and requires employees to have worked for the employer for at least six consecutive months.
FMLA, on the other hand, applies to employers with at least 50 employees and requires employees to have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to the leave.
Different reasons for leave
While both laws cover leave for the birth or adoption of a child and for the serious health condition of the employee or a family member, HFLL also specifically allows leave to care for a sibling or reciprocal beneficiary, which is not covered under FMLA.
Interaction with other leaves
If an employee exhausts their FMLA leave entitlement, they may still be eligible for additional leave under HFLL if they have not used up their four-week entitlement under that law.
Keep compliant with Deel PEO
New to managing parental and family leave laws in Hawaii? With Deel PEO, you can offload compliance risks and processes to ensure state-specific alignment.
- Fully in-house operations for improved support and workflows
- Expert payroll administration, HR, and benefits compliance
- Exclusive Aetna International benefits plans for W2 employees travelling abroad
- Built-in compliance for local and federal coverage
- 60+ domestic benefits plans with Fortune 500-caliber benefits
- Trainings, HR policies, and on-demand HR support
- And more
To learn more about how you can use Deel PEO to scale in the US, book a 30-minute call with one of our dedicated experts.
About the author
Shannon Ongaro is a content marketing manager and trained journalist with over a decade of experience producing content that supports franchisees, small businesses, and global enterprises. Over the years, she’s covered topics such as payroll, HR tech, workplace culture, and more. At Deel, Shannon specializes in thought leadership and global payroll content.
