At the beginning of the 2024 Legislative Session, HEC started tracking over 150 employment-related bills and other bills of interest that could impact Hawaii employers.  As of today, fifteen of those are still moving through the legislature.  View our updated 2024 Employment-Related Bills and Other Bills of Interest to see a summary of the fifteen “surviving” bills to date. A few of the more notable ones include:

• HB2522 HD1 SD1 relating to employee benefits which would allow employees up to eight additional weeks of leave if they are unable to perform their employment duties due to the birth of a child who is required to stay in a neonatal intensive care union.  This bill was recently amended to also direct the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission to amend its administrative rules to enable it to investigate claims of sex discrimination if the alleged discrimination is based on the inability for an employee to take this leave.
• HD2463 HD2 SD1 relating to Hawaii’s wage and hour law which would amend the definition of “employee” under that law to exclude any employee who received guaranteed compensation totaling $4,000 or more a month. This means any employee receiving less than $4,000 a month (and not in a bona fide executive, administrative, supervisory or professional capacity) would be entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections.
• SB2474 SD2 HD1 relating to family leave which would establish a family and medical leave insurance program administered by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. This program would allow eligible employees take twelve weeks of paid leave for various reasons.  If passed, this law would apply to all employers regardless of the number of employees on its payroll.
• SB2715 SD1 HD2 relating to unfair labor practices which would make it unlawful for an employer to take any adverse employment action against an employee because the employee declines to attend or participate in an employer-sponsored meeting that communicates the opinion of the employer about political matters.  “Political matters” has been recently defined to be “anything related to an attempt to influence a future vote by persons in an audience.”

We will continue to post updates to these bills for the remainder of the session as they become available.