Hawaii: Bereavement Leave Requirements
The short answer
No. Hawaii does not require an ordinary private-sector employer to provide paid or unpaid bereavement, funeral, memorial, or reproductive-loss leave. An employer that offers such leave sets the eligibility, duration, pay, notice, proof, privacy, and attendance terms in its policy or agreement.
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This is the general rule in Hawaii. Ezel applies current Hawaii law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and type of leave | No general private-sector bereavement-leave mandate. HRS ch. 398 creates family leave for birth, adoption, and serious-health-condition care, not death-related leave |
|---|---|
| Covered employers and employees | No general state-mandated private-sector bereavement coverage threshold or employee eligibility test; employer policy or agreement defines coverage |
| Qualifying deaths, relationships, and events | No statewide private-sector list of covered deaths, relationships, funerals, memorials, reproductive losses, grief, or post-death tasks; employer policy controls |
| Leave amount, timing, and caps | No state-required private-sector bereavement allotment, per-death amount, annual cap, consecutive-use rule, or completion window; Chapter 398's 4-week family leave does not cover death |
| Paid or unpaid; use of existing leave | No required paid or unpaid private-sector bereavement allotment; Hawaii does not require paid vacation or sick leave, and employer policy controls offered benefits |
| Notice, documentation, and proof | No bereavement-specific state call-in, request-form, proof, death-certificate, or privacy rule for ordinary private employment; employer policy supplies the procedure |
| Job protection, attendance, and confidentiality | No Hawaii bereavement-specific restoration, attendance, retaliation, or confidentiality right for ordinary private employment; employer policy supplies any internal terms |
| Enforcement, remedies, and deadlines | No general bereavement-specific state complaint, civil remedy, penalty, or filing deadline |
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What an employee and employer do without a state mandate
Hawaii does not create a general block of funeral, memorial, bereavement, or
reproductive-loss leave for ordinary private-sector employees. The current
Title 21 labor index lists the state's employment-law chapters, including
Family Leave and organ, bone-marrow, or stem-cell donation leave, but contains
no bereavement or death-related leave chapter.
The Hawaii Family Leave Law does not fill that gap. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 398-1
covers employers with at least 100 employees and employees who have worked at
least six consecutive months. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 398-3(a) provides four weeks
for birth, adoption, or care of a listed family member with a serious health
condition. A family member's death, a funeral or memorial, grief,
reproductive loss, and post-death tasks are not listed reasons.
For an ordinary private employer, the practical starting point is the
handbook, offer terms, collective bargaining agreement, or other policy. Haw.
Rev. Stat. § 388-7(3) requires written or accessibly posted vacation and sick
leave policies. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations likewise
states that paid vacation and sick leave are not required and that the
employer's policy determines how offered benefits are earned and used. Those
rules do not create a statewide bereavement allotment. The employer's own terms
therefore supply any covered relationships, days, pay, call-in procedure,
requested proof, privacy treatment, and attendance consequences.
What trips people up
Four weeks of family leave are not four weeks of bereavement leave. Chapter
398 protects its listed birth, adoption, and serious-health-condition reasons;
death-related leave is not one of them.
A policy-disclosure duty is not a leave mandate. Section 388-7 requires
access to vacation and sick-leave policies. It does not require an employer to
create paid or unpaid bereavement leave.
Another kind of leave remains a separate question. A health condition
after a loss, pregnancy-related leave, disability accommodation,
discrimination law, federal family and medical leave, and collective
bargaining rights fall outside this cell's state-law bereavement scope.
Common questions
Must a Hawaii employer provide three or five bereavement days?
No. Hawaii sets no general private-sector minimum number of bereavement days.
Must voluntary bereavement leave be paid?
No statewide private-sector rule requires pay. The employer's policy controls
whether offered leave is paid, unpaid, or charged to an existing leave bank.
Can an employer ask for an obituary or death certificate?
Hawaii has no general private-sector bereavement statute supplying a proof
list or delivery deadline. The employer's policy supplies the procedure.
Statutes and sources
- Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 index. The official current labor title
contains Family Leave and donor-leave chapters but no general bereavement or
death-related leave chapter. Official Title 21
index
(accessed July 15, 2026). - Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 398-1, 398-3. Chapter 398 covers employers with 100 or
more employees and employees with six months' service, but its four-week
right covers birth, adoption, and serious-health-condition care rather than
death-related leave. Official
definitions
and official leave
section
(accessed July 15, 2026). - Haw. Rev. Stat. § 388-7(3). Employers must provide access to vacation and
sick-leave policies. Official current
section
(accessed July 15, 2026). - Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations guidance. The agency
states that paid vacation and sick leave are not required and employer policy
controls offered benefits. Official DLIR
guidance (accessed
July 15, 2026). - Hawaii State Legislature, 2026 session calendar. The regular session
adjourned sine die May 8. Official
calendar (accessed
July 15, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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