Definitions

HRS div. 1, tit. 21, ch. 383, pt. I

in effect

HRS §383-1 Definitions, generally

383-1. Definitions, generally As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise: "Administration fund" means the special unemployment insurance administration fund established pursuant to section 383-127. "Alternative base period" means the four completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of an individual's benefit year. "American vessel" means any vessel documented or numbered under the laws of the United States; and includes any vessel which is neither documented or numbered under the laws of the United States nor documented under the laws of any foreign country, if its crew is employed solely by one or more citizens or residents of the United States or corporations organized under the laws of the United States or of any state. "Attached to a regular employer" means: (1) The employee is being offered work each week by the employee's regular employer; or (2) If no work is being offered: (A) The employer is maintaining the individual on the payroll by paying for a medical insurance plan or by maintaining the employee's sick leave or vacation credits; or (B) There is a definite return to work date with the same employer. "Base period," with respect to benefit years beginning after June 30, 1951, means the four completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of an individual's benefit year. With respect to benefit years beginning on and after October 1, 1989, the base period means the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters preceding the first day of an individual's benefit year. "Benefits" means the money payments payable to an individual, as provided in this chapter, with respect to the individual's unemployment. "Benefit year" means a period of fifty-two consecutive weeks beginning with the first day of the week in which an individual files a new valid claim for benefits; except that the benefit year shall be fifty-three weeks if the filing of a new valid claim would result in overlapping any quarter of the base year of a previously filed new claim. A subsequent benefit year cannot be established until the expiration of the current benefit year. "Calendar quarter" means the period of three consecutive calendar months ending on March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31, or the equivalent thereof, as the department may by rule prescribe. "Contributions" means the money payments required by this chapter to be made into the state unemployment compensation fund by any employing unit on account of having individuals in its employ. "Department" means the department of labor and industrial relations. "Director" means the director of labor and industrial relations of the State. "Employer" means: (1) Any employing unit which for some portion of a day within the current calendar year has or had in employment one or more individuals; and (2) For the effective period of its election pursuant to section 383-77, any other employing unit which has elected to become subject to this chapter. "Employing unit" means any individual or type of organization, including the State, any of its political subdivisions, any instrumentality of the State or its political subdivisions, any partnership, association, trust, estate, joint-stock company, insurance company, or corporation, whether domestic or foreign, or the receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, trustee, or successor of any of the foregoing, or the legal representative of a deceased person, which has or subsequent to January 1, 1937, had one or more individuals performing services for it within this State. (1) All individuals performing services within this State for any employing unit which maintains two or more separate establishments within this State shall be deemed to be performing services for a single employing unit for all the purposes of this chapter. (2) Each individual employed to perform or to assist in performing the work of any person in the service of an employing unit shall be deemed to be engaged by the employing unit for all the purposes of this chapter, whether the individual was hired or paid directly by the employing unit or by such person, provided the employing unit had actual or constructive knowledge of the work. "Employment office" means a free public employment office or branch thereof operated by the State or any other state as a part of a state-controlled system of public employment offices or by a federal agency charged with the administration of an unemployment compensation program or free public employment offices. "Federal Unemployment Tax Act" means chapter 23 of subtitle C of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. "Full-time hours" or "full-time work" means a forty-hour workweek unless regarded otherwise according to the standard practice, custom, or agreement in a particular trade, occupation, or business. "Fund" means the unemployment compensation fund established by this chapter. "Insured work" means employment for employers. "Owner-employee" means a person who has performed services for an employing unit as defined in this section, and who is or has been a shareholder owning twenty-five per cent or more of the corporation's common stock, and director or officer, or both, of a corporation which is or was the employing unit or who exercises a substantial degree of control over the direction of corporate activities. "Partial unemployment" or "partially unemployed" means the unemployment of any individual who, during a particular week, was still attached to that individual's regular employer, had no earnings or earned less than that individual's weekly benefit amount, and who worked less than or did not work that individual's normal, customary full-time hours for the individual's regular employer because of a lack of full-time work. "Recipient of social service payments" includes: (1) A person who is an eligible recipient of social services such as attendant care and day care services; and (2) A corporation or private agency that contracts directly with the department of human services to provide attendant care and day care authorized under the Social Security Act, as amended. "Referee" means the referee for unemployment compensation appeals. "Registered for work" or "registration for work" means that an individual shall provide information to the department to facilitate work search efforts by the individual and increase job referrals by the employment office. "State" includes the states of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands. "Unemployment". An individual shall be deemed "unemployed" in any week during which the individual performs no services and with respect to which no wages are payable to the individual, or in any week of less than full-time work if the wages payable to the individual with respect to such week are less than the individual's weekly benefit amount. The department shall prescribe rules applicable to unemployed individuals making such distinctions in the procedures as to total unemployment, part-total unemployment, partial unemployment, of individuals attached to their regular jobs, and other forms of short-time work, as the department deems necessary. "Week of unemployment" means a week in which an individual is deemed unemployed. "Week" means a period of seven consecutive calendar days commencing with Sunday and ending at midnight the following Saturday. "Weeks of employment" means all those weeks within each of which the individual has performed services in employment for not less than two days or four hours per week for one or more employers subject to this chapter or with respect to which the individual has received remuneration from one or more employers subject to this chapter in the form of vacation, holiday, or sickness pay or similar remuneration. [L 1939, c 219, pt of §1; am L 1941, c 304, §1, subs 1-7, 9-11, 13, 14; am L 1943, c 160, §1, subs 1, 2; RL 1945, §4202; am L 1947, c 75, §1(1); am L 1951, c 195, §1(1); am L 1953, c 41, §1(1); RL 1955, §93-1; am L 1957, c 115, §1(a) and c 205, §1(a); am L 1959, c 222, §1; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; am L 1963, c 174, §3; am L 1964, c 61, §2; HRS §383-1; am L 1969, c 6, §1; am L 1974, c 40, §1; am L 1976, c 157, §1; gen ch 1985; am L 1986, c 32, §1 and c 162, §1; am L 1987, c 119, §2; am L 2003, c 219, §1; am L 2007, c 259, §2; am L 2009, c 170, §§3, 7; am L 2010, c 76, §§2, 3; am L 2011, c 165, §§2, 5; am L 2021, c 1, §1; am L 2025, c 214, §1]

HRS §383-2 Definition of employment

383-2. Definition of employment (a) As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, "employment", subject to sections 383-3 to 383-9, means service, including service in interstate commerce, performed for wages or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied. (b) "Employment" includes, but is not limited to, any service performed prior to January 1, 1978, which was employment as defined in this section prior to such date and, subject to the other provisions of this section, service performed after December 31, 1977, by an employee as defined in section 3306(i) and (o) of the federal Unemployment Tax Act, including service in interstate commerce. (c) The term "employment" shall include the service of an individual who is a citizen of the United States, performed outside the United States (except in Canada or the Virgin Islands as provided in paragraph (5) of this subsection), after December 31, 1971, in the employ of an American employer or of this State or of any of its instrumentalities or of any of its political subdivisions (other than service which is deemed employment under the provisions of section 383-3 or the parallel provisions of another state's law) if: (1) The employer's principal place of business in the United States is located in this State; (2) The employer has no place of business in the United States, but[:] (A) The employer is an individual who is a resident of this State; (B) The employer is a corporation which is organized under the laws of this State; or (C) The employer is a partnership or a trust and the number of the partners or trustees who are residents of this State is greater than the number who are residents of any one other state; or (3) None of the criteria of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection is met but the employer has elected coverage in this State or, the employer having failed to elect coverage in any state, the individual has filed a claim for benefits, based on such service under the law of this State. (4) An "American employer", for purposes of this subsection, means a person who is: (A) An individual who is a resident of the United States; (B) A partnership if two-thirds or more of the partners are residents of the United States; (C) A trust, if all of the trustees are residents of the United States; or (D) A corporation organized under the laws of the United States or of any state. (5) As used in this subsection, the term "United States" includes the states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and, after December 31 of the year in which the Secretary of Labor approves for the first time an unemployment insurance law of the Virgin Islands submitted to the Secretary of Labor for approval, the term "United States" shall also include the Virgin Islands. (d) The term "employment" shall include an individual's service, wherever performed within the United States, the Virgin Islands, or Canada, if: (1) The service is not covered under the unemployment compensation law of any other state, the Virgin Islands, or Canada; and (2) The place from which the service is directed or controlled is in this State. (e) "Employment" includes service performed by an individual in agricultural labor as defined in section 383-9 except for service excluded under section 383-7(a)(1). (1) For the purposes of this section, any individual who is a member of a crew furnished by a crew leader to perform service in agricultural labor for any other person shall be treated as an employee of the crew leader: (A) If the crew leader holds a valid certificate of registration under the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963; or substantially all the members of the crew operate or maintain tractors, mechanized harvesting or cropdusting equipment, or any other mechanized equipment, which is provided by the crew leader; and (B) If the employee is not an employee of the other person within the meaning of subsection (b). (2) For the purposes of this subsection, in the case of any individual who is furnished by a crew leader to perform service in agricultural labor for any other person and who is not treated as an employee of the crew leader under paragraph (1): (A) The other person and not the crew leader shall be treated as the employer of the individual; and (B) The other person shall be treated as having paid cash remuneration to the individual in an amount equal to the amount of cash remuneration paid to the individual by the crew leader (either on the crew leader's own behalf or on behalf of the other person) for the service in agricultural labor performed for the other person. (3) For the purposes of this subsection, the term "crew leader" means an individual who: (A) Furnishes individuals to perform service in agricultural labor for any other person; (B) Pays (either on the crew leader's own behalf or on behalf of the other person) the individuals so furnished by the crew leader for the service in agricultural labor performed by them; and (C) Has not entered into a written agreement with the other person under which the individual is designated as an employee of the other person. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(1); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4203; RL 1955, §93-2; HRS §383-2; am L 1971, c 187, §1; am L 1977, c 148, §1; gen ch 1985; am L 2015, c 35, §12]

HRS §383-3 Place of performance

383-3. Place of performance "Employment" includes an individual's entire service, performed within or both within and without this State if: (1) The service is localized in this State; or (2) The service is not localized in any state but some of the service is performed in this State and[:] (A) The individual's base of operation, or, if there is no base of operation, then the place from which such service is directed or controlled, is in this State; or (B) The individual's base of operation or place from which the service is directed or controlled is not in any state in which some part of the service is performed but the individual's residence is in this State. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, the term employment also includes all service performed after June 30, 1946, by an officer or member of the crew of an American vessel on or in connection with such vessel, provided that the operating office from which the operations of the vessel operating on navigable waters within or within and without the United States is ordinarily and regularly supervised, managed, directed, and controlled, is within this State. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(2); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4204; am L 1947, c 75, §1(2); RL 1955, §93-3; HRS §383-3]

HRS §383-4 Election of employing unit

383-4. Election of employing unit Services covered by an election pursuant to section 383-77 and services covered by an arrangement pursuant to sections 383-106 to 383-109 between the department of labor and industrial relations and the agency charged with the administration of any other state or federal unemployment compensation law, pursuant to which all services performed by an individual for an employing unit are deemed to be performed entirely within this State, shall be deemed to be employment if the department has approved an election of the employing unit for which the services are performed, pursuant to which the entire service of the individual during the period covered by the election is deemed to be insured work. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(1); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4205; RL 1955, §93-4; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; HRS §383-4]

HRS §383-5 Service localized where

383-5. Service localized where Service shall be deemed to be localized within a state, if: (1) The service is performed entirely within the state; or (2) The service is performed both within and without the state, but the service performed without the state is incidental to the individual's service within the state, for example, is temporary or transitory in nature or consists of isolated transactions. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(1); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4206; RL 1955, §93-5; HRS §383-5]

HRS §383-6 Master and servant relationship, not required when

383-6. Master and servant relationship, not required when Services performed by an individual for wages or under any contract of hire shall be deemed to be employment subject to this chapter irrespective of whether the common law relationship of master and servant exists unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the department of labor and industrial relations that: (1) The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of such service, both under the individual's contract of hire and in fact; (2) The service is either outside the usual course of the business for which the service is performed or that the service is performed outside of all the places of business of the enterprise for which the service is performed; and (3) The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as that involved in the contract of service. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(5); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4207; RL 1955, §93-6; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; HRS §383-6; gen ch 1985]

HRS §383-7 Excluded service

383-7. Excluded service (a) "Employment" shall not include: (1) Agricultural labor as defined in section 383-9 if it is performed by an individual who is employed by an employing unit: (A) That, during each calendar quarter in both the current and the preceding calendar years, paid less than $20,000 in cash remuneration to individuals employed in agricultural labor, including labor performed by an alien referred to in subparagraph (C); and (B) That had, in each of the current and the preceding calendar years: (i) No more than nineteen calendar weeks, whether consecutive or not, in which agricultural labor was performed by its employees, including labor performed by an alien referred to in subparagraph (C); or (ii) No more than nine individuals in its employ performing agricultural labor in any one calendar week, whether or not the same individuals performed the labor in each week, including labor performed by an alien referred to in subparagraph (C); or (C) If such agricultural labor is performed by an individual who is an alien admitted to the United States to perform agricultural labor pursuant to sections 214(c) and 101(a)(15)(H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (2) Domestic service in a private home, local college club, or local chapter of a college fraternity or sorority as set forth in section 3306(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; (3) Service not in the course of the employing unit's trade or business performed in any calendar quarter by an individual, unless the cash remuneration paid for the service is $50 or more and the service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by the employing unit to perform the service. For the purposes of this paragraph, an individual shall be deemed to be regularly employed to perform service not in the course of an employing unit's trade or business during a calendar quarter if: (A) On each of some twenty-four days during the quarter the individual performs the service for some portion of the day; or (B) The individual was regularly employed as determined under subparagraph (A) by the employing unit in the performance of the service during the preceding calendar quarter; (4) (A) Service performed on or in connection with a vessel not an American vessel, if the individual performing the service is employed on and in connection with the vessel when outside the United States; (B) Service performed by an individual in (or as an officer or member of the crew of a vessel while it is engaged in) the catching, taking, harvesting, cultivating, or farming of any kind of fish, shellfish, crustacea, sponges, seaweeds, or other aquatic forms of animal and vegetable life, including service performed as an ordinary incident thereto, except: (i) The service performed in connection with a vessel of more than ten net tons (determined in the manner provided for determining the register tonnage of merchant vessels under the laws of the United States); (ii) The service performed in connection with a vessel of ten net tons or less (determined in the manner provided for determining the register tonnage of merchant vessels under the laws of the United States) by an individual who is employed by an employing unit which had in its employ one or more individuals performing the service for some portion of a day in each of twenty calendar weeks all occurring, whether consecutive or not, in either the current or the preceding calendar year; and (iii) Service performed in connection with the catching or taking of salmon or halibut for commercial purposes; (5) Service performed by an individual in the employ of the individual's son, daughter, or spouse, and service performed by a child under the age of twenty-one in the employ of the child's father or mother; (6) Service performed in the employ of the United States government or an instrumentality of the United States exempt under the Constitution of the United States from the contributions imposed by this chapter, except that to the extent that the Congress of the United States permits states to require any instrumentalities of the United States to make payments into an unemployment fund under a state unemployment compensation law, all of the provisions of this chapter shall apply to those instrumentalities, and to services performed for those instrumentalities, in the same manner, to the same extent, and on the same terms as to all other employers, employing units, individuals, and services; provided that if this State is not certified for any year by the Secretary of Labor under section 3304(c) of the federal Internal Revenue Code, the payments required of those instrumentalities with respect to that year shall be refunded by the department of labor and industrial relations from the fund in the same manner and within the same period as is provided in section 383-76 with respect to contributions erroneously collected; (7) Service performed in the employ of any other state, or any political subdivision thereof, or any instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing which is wholly owned by one or more states or political subdivisions; and any service performed in the employ of any instrumentality of one or more other states or their political subdivisions to the extent that the instrumentality is, with respect to the service, exempt from the tax imposed by section 3301 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; (8) Service with respect to which unemployment compensation is payable under an unemployment system established by an act of Congress; (9) (A) Service performed in any calendar quarter in the employ of any organization exempt from income tax under section 501(a) of the federal Internal Revenue Code (other than an organization described in section 401(a) or under section 521 of the Internal Revenue Code), if: (i) The remuneration for the service is less than $50; or (ii) The service is performed by a fully ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church in the exercise of the minister's ministry or by a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by the order; (B) Service performed in the employ of a school, college, or university, if the service is performed by a student who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes at the school, college, or university; or (C) Service performed by an individual who is enrolled at a nonprofit or public educational institution which normally maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly organized body of students in attendance at the place where its educational activities are carried on as a student in a full-time program, taken for credit at the institution, which combines academic instruction with work experience, if the service is an integral part of such program, and the institution has so certified to the employer, except that this subparagraph shall not apply to service performed in a program established for or on behalf of an employer or group of employers; (10) Service performed in the employ of a foreign government, including service as a consular or other officer or employee of a nondiplomatic representative; (11) Service performed in the employ of an instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government: (A) If the service is of a character similar to that performed in foreign countries by employees of the United States government or of an instrumentality thereof; and (B) If the United States Secretary of State has certified or certifies to the United States Secretary of the Treasury that the foreign government, with respect to whose instrumentality exemption is claimed, grants an equivalent exemption with respect to similar service performed in the foreign country by employees of the United States government and of instrumentalities thereof; (12) Service performed as a student nurse in the employ of a hospital or a nurses' training school by an individual who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes in a nurses' training school chartered or approved pursuant to state law; and service performed as an intern in the employ of a hospital by an individual who has completed a four-year course in a medical school chartered or approved pursuant to state law; (13) Service performed by an individual for an employing unit as an insurance producer, if all service performed by the individual for the employing unit is performed for remuneration solely by way of commission; (14) Service performed by an individual under the age of eighteen in the delivery or distribution of newspapers or shopping news, not including delivery or distribution to any point for subsequent delivery or distribution; (15) Service covered by an arrangement between the department and the agency charged with the administration of any other state or federal unemployment compensation law pursuant to which all services performed by an individual for an employing unit during the period covered by the employing unit's duly approved election, are deemed to be performed entirely within the agency's state; (16) Service performed by an individual who, pursuant to the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, is not subject to the federal laws relating to unemployment compensation; (17) Service performed by an individual for an employing unit as a real estate salesperson, if all service performed by the individual for the employing unit is performed for remuneration solely by way of commission; (18) Service performed by a registered sales representative for a registered travel agency, when the service performed by the individual for the travel agent is performed for remuneration by way of commission; (19) Service performed by a vacuum cleaner salesperson for an employing unit, if all services performed by the individual for the employing unit are performed for remuneration solely by way of commission; (20) Service performed for a family-owned private corporation organized for profit that employs only members of the family who each own at least fifty per cent of the shares issued by the corporation; provided that: (A) The private corporation elects to be excluded from coverage under this chapter; (B) The election for exclusion shall apply to all shareholders and under the same circumstances; (C) No more than two members of a family may be eligible per entity for exclusion under this paragraph; (D) The exclusion shall be irrevocable for five years; (E) The family-owned private corporation presents to the department proof that it has paid federal unemployment insurance taxes as required by federal law; and (F) The election to be excluded from coverage shall be effective the first day of the calendar quarter in which the application and all substantiating documents requested by the department are filed with the department; (21) Service performed by a direct seller as defined in section 3508 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; (22) Service performed by an election official or election worker as defined in section 3309(b)(3)(F) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; (23) Service performed by an inmate or any person committed to a penal institution; and (24) Domestic in-home and community-based services for persons with developmental and intellectual disabilities under the medicaid home and community‑based services program pursuant to title 42 Code of Federal Regulations sections 440.180 and 441.300, and title 42 Code of Federal Regulations, part 434, subpart A, as amended, or when provided through state funded medical assistance to individuals ineligible for medicaid, and identified as chore, personal assistance and habilitation, residential habilitation, supported employment, respite, and skilled nursing services, as the terms are defined and amended from time to time by the department of human services, performed by an individual whose services are contracted by a recipient of social service payments and who voluntarily agrees in writing to be an independent contractor of the recipient of social service payments unless the individual is an employee and not an independent contractor of the recipient of social service payments under the federal Unemployment Tax Act. (b) None of the exclusions in subsection (a) shall apply to any service with respect to which a tax is required to be paid under any federal law imposing a tax against which credit may be taken for contributions required to be paid into a state unemployment fund or which as a condition for full tax credit against the tax imposed by the federal Unemployment Tax Act is required to be covered under this chapter. [L 1939, c 219, §2(k)(6); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4208; am L 1945, c 19, §1; am L 1947, c 75, §1; am L 1951, c 191, §1(1), (2) and c 195, §1(2), (3); am L 1953, c 41, §1(2); RL 1955, §93-7; am L 1959, c 11, §1(b), c 222, §1(2), and c 232, §4; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; am L 1961, c 81, §1 and c 141, §1; am L 1965, c 61, §1; am L 1967, c 51, §1; HRS §383-7; am L 1969, c 73, §§1, 2; am L 1971, c 187, §2 and c 213, §2; am L 1973, c 120, §1; am L 1974, c 156, §1; am L 1977, c 148, §2; am L 1982, c 192, §1 and c 194, §2; gen ch 1985; am L 1989, c 217, §2; am L 1990, c 284, §1; am L 1994, c 112, §2; am L 1996, c 223, §2 and c 306, §1; am L 1998, c 34, §1; am L 2003, c 212, §4; am L 2007, c 70, §3, c 97, §2, and c 259, §6; am L 2011, c 220, §15; am L 2012, c 158, §1]

HRS §383-7.5 Part-time work; benefits available

383-7.5. Part-time work; benefits available Notwithstanding any law to the contrary under this chapter, an individual shall not be denied regular unemployment benefits relating to availability for work, active search for work, or refusal to accept work, solely because the individual is seeking only part-time work; provided that this section shall not apply if a majority of the weeks of work in the individual's base period does not include part-time work. [L 2009, c 171, pt of §1]

HRS §383-7.6 Separation for compelling family reason

383-7.6. Separation for compelling family reason (a) An individual shall not be disqualified from regular unemployment benefits for separating from employment if that separation is for a compelling family reason. For purposes of this section, the term "compelling family reason" means any of the following: (1) Domestic or sexual violence that is verified by reasonable and confidential documentation that causes the individual to reasonably believe that the individual's continued employment may jeopardize the safety of the individual or any member of the individual's immediate family (as defined by the United States Secretary of Labor), including any of the following circumstances: (A) The individual has a reasonable fear of the occurrence of future domestic or sexual violence at, en route to, or en route from the individual’s place of employment, including being a victim of stalking; (B) The anxiety of the individual to relocate to avoid future domestic or sexual violence against the individual or the individual’s minor child prevents the individual from reporting to work; (C) The need of the individual or the individual's minor child to obtain treatment to recover from the physical or psychological effects of domestic or sexual violence prevents the individual from reporting to work; (D) The employer's refusal to grant the individual’s request for leave to address domestic or sexual violence and its effects on the individual or the individual’s minor child, including leave authorized by section 102 of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, Public Law 103-3, as amended, or other federal, state, or county law; or (E) Any other circumstance in which domestic or sexual violence causes the individual to reasonably believe that separation from employment is necessary for the future safety of the individual, the individual’s minor child, or other individuals who may be present in the employer’s workplace; (2) Illness or disability of a member of the individual's immediate family (as defined by the United States Secretary of Labor); or (3) The need for the individual to accompany the individual's spouse, because of a change in the location of the spouse's employment, to a place from which it is impractical for the individual to commute to work. (b) The department may request as reasonable and confidential documentation under subsection (a)(1) the following evidence: (1) A notarized written statement of the individual attesting to the status of the individual or the individual's minor child as a victim of domestic or sexual violence and explaining how continued employment creates an unreasonable risk of further violence; (2) A signed written statement from: (A) A victim services organization or domestic or sexual violence program, agency, or facility, including a shelter or safe house for victims of domestic or sexual violence; or (B) A medical professional, mental health care provider, attorney, advocate, social worker, or member of the clergy from whom the individual or the individual's minor child has sought assistance in relation to the domestic or sexual violence, attesting to the domestic or sexual violence and explaining how the continued employment creates an unreasonable risk of further violence; or (3) Certified or exemplified restraining orders, injunctions against harassment, and documents from criminal cases suggesting or demonstrating that the continued employment may cause an unreasonable risk of further violence. (c) All information provided to the department pursuant to this section, including any statement of the individual or any other documentation, record, or corroborating evidence discussing or relating to domestic or sexual violence, and the fact that the individual has applied for, inquired about, or obtained unemployment compensation by reason of this section shall be retained in the strictest confidence by the individual’s former or current employer, and shall not be disclosed except to the extent that disclosure is requested or consented to by the employee, ordered by a court or administrative agency, or otherwise required by applicable federal or state law. (d) As used in this section, the terms "domestic or sexual violence", "stalking", and "victim services organization" shall have the same meaning as in section 378-71. [L 2009, c 171, pt of §1; am L 2020, c 19, §8]

HRS §383-8 Included and excluded service

383-8. Included and excluded service If the services performed during one-half or more of any pay period by an individual for the person employing the individual constitute employment, all the services of the individual for the period shall be deemed to be employment; but if the services performed during more than one-half of any pay period by an individual for the person employing the individual do not constitute employment, then none of the services of the individual for the period shall be deemed to be employment. As used in this section, the term "pay period" means a period (of not more than thirty-one consecutive days) for which a payment of remuneration is ordinarily made to the individual by the person employing the individual. This section shall not be applicable with respect to services performed in a pay period by an individual for the person employing the individual, where any of the service is excepted by section 383-7(a)(8). [L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4209; RL 1955, §93-8; HRS §383-8; gen ch 1985; am L 2015, c 35, §13]

HRS §383-9 Agricultural labor

383-9. Agricultural labor "Agricultural labor" includes all service performed prior to January 1, 1972, which was agricultural labor as defined in this section prior to such date, and remunerated service performed after December 31, 1971: (1) On a farm, in the employ of any person in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and furbearing animals and wildlife; (2) In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of such service is performed on a farm; (3) In connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in section 15(g) of the federal Agricultural Marketing Act, as amended, or in connection with the ginning of cotton, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes; (4) (A) In the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity; but only if such operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed; (B) In the employ of a group of operators of farms (or a cooperative organization of which such operators are members) in the performance of service described in subparagraph (A), but only if such operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed; (C) The provisions of subparagraphs (A) and (B) shall not be deemed to be applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption; or (5) On a farm operated for profit if such service is not in the course of the employer's trade or business. As used in this section, "farm" includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, furbearing animal, and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses, or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities, and orchards. [L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 8; RL 1945, §4210; RL 1955, §93-9; HRS §383-9; am L 1971, c 187, §3; am L 1977, c 148, §3]

HRS §383-10 Definition of wages

383-10. Definition of wages As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, "wages", subject to section 383-11, means all remuneration for services from whatever source, including commissions and bonuses, tips or gratuities paid directly to an individual by a customer of the employer and reported to the employer, and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash. The reasonable cash value of remuneration in any medium other than cash shall be estimated and determined in accordance with rules prescribed by the department of labor and industrial relations. [L 1939, c 219, §2(p); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 12; RL 1945, §4211; am L 1953, c 23, §1(2); RL 1955, §93-10; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; HRS §383-10; gen ch 1985; am L 1986, c 288, §1]

HRS §383-11 Excluded payments

383-11. Excluded payments "Wages" does not include: (1) The amount of any payment (including any amount paid by an employing unit for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide, for any such payment) to, or on behalf of, an individual or any of the individual's dependents under a plan or system established by an employing unit which makes provision generally for individuals performing service for it (or for such individuals generally and their dependents) or for a class or classes of such individuals (or for a class or classes of such individuals and their dependents), on account of[:] (A) Retirement; (B) Sickness or accident disability; (C) Medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability; or (D) Death; (2) The amount of any payment by an employing unit to an individual performing service for it (including any amount paid by an employing unit for insurance or annuities or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) on account of retirement; (3) The amount of any payment on account of sickness or accident disability, or medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, by an employing unit to, or on behalf of, an individual performing services for it after the expiration of six calendar months following the last calendar month in which the individual performed services for the employing unit; (4) The amount of any payment by an employing unit to, or on behalf of, an individual performing services for it or the individual's beneficiary[:] (A) From or to a trust described in section 401(a) and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of the federal Internal Revenue Code at the time of the payment unless the payment is made to an individual performing services for the trust as remuneration for such services and not as a beneficiary of the trust; or (B) Under or to an annuity plan which, at the time of the payments, meets the requirements of section 401(a)(3), (4), (5), and (6) of the federal Internal Revenue Code; (5) The amount of any payment by an employing unit (without deduction from the remuneration of the individual in its employ) of the tax imposed upon an individual in its employ under section 3101 of the federal Internal Revenue Code; (6) Remuneration paid in any medium other than cash to an individual for service not in the course of the employing unit's trade or business; (7) The amount of any payment (other than vacation or sick pay) to an individual after the month in which the individual attains the age of sixty-five, if the individual did not perform services for the employing unit in the period for which such payment is made; (8) The amount of any payment (not required under any contract of hire) to an individual with respect to the individual's period of training or service in the armed forces of the United States by an employing unit by which the individual was formerly employed; (9) The amount of any payment (including any amount paid by an employer into a fund to provide for such payment) made after April 1, 1956, to or on behalf of an employee under a written agreement, contract, trust arrangement, or other instrument, which makes provision for the employer's employees generally or for a class or group of the employer's employees, for the purpose of supplementing benefits paid under this chapter or providing benefits based on wages paid for excluded services. [L 1939, c 219, §2(p); am L 1941, c 304, §1, pt of subs 12; RL 1945, §4212; am L 1951, c 191, §1(3); RL 1955, §93-11; am L 1957, c 205, §1(d); HRS §383-11; gen ch 1985]

Source: Hawaii State Legislature (capitol.hawaii.gov), via Internet Archive capturesURL: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol07_Ch0346-0398/HRS0383/HRS_0383-.htmFetched: 11/10/2026