Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance | AbsenceSoft Documentation

Overview

Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) requires employers to provide partial wage replacement to eligible employees for a nonwork-related injury, illness, or pregnancy, including organ donation. TDI provides wage replacement only — it does not provide job protection. Employers arrange coverage through an approved insurance carrier, a self-insured plan, or a collective bargaining agreement; TDI is not administered by the state.

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

Policy Status Decisions

Employers can use an insurance carrier chosen by the employer unless the employer has an approved plan to administer on their own.

💡 Best Practice: Employers should confirm eligibility determinations and benefit payments through their carrier, where applicable. AbsenceSoft is used to track benefit payments.

How to Use

Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:

✅ Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed.

📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform.

💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere.

How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law

AbsenceSoft manages this law through 1 policy:

Policy Name - Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance
Policy Code - HI-STD
Benefit Type - Paid Leave

Administration Options

Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance is required by the state, however the state doesn’t administer the program. See Legislative Guidance for details:

Private Plans (fully or self-insured) may require custom policies depending on employer coverage offered

💡 Best Practice: Employers with a private plan should customize the existing policy to meet their state approved requirements and change the policy type to Company to show the policy is owned by the employer.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Excluded employers are not covered under the law and may need to disable the policy in the platform to keep it from rendering. Discuss decisions with legal counsel for best approach.

Employee Eligibility

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

This policy may have eligibility criteria tied to wages/earnings that are not available in the platform. Employers should follow the carrier’s determination for the wage replacement policy.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the carrier’s decision determination for eligibility.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the carrier determines the employee has not met the eligibility requirements necessary for paid benefits.

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility from pass to fail for excluded employees.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Entitlement Overview

All HI-STD absence reasons share a single combined entitlement of 26 work weeks in a 12-month rolling forward period.

Employee Health Condition
Pregnancy/Maternity
Organ Donation

Entitlement Rules

✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically calculates and tracks entitlement usage against the shared 26-work-weeks across all three HI-STD absence reasons.

📝 Configuration Note: Hawaii law calculates partial-week benefits based on the employee's typical work schedule rather than a calendar week. AbsenceSoft cannot currently support this calculation and tracks entitlement in work weeks instead.

📝 Configuration Note: Organ Donation is limited to situations where the employee is the organ donor (Relationship to Employee = Self).

Pay and Benefits

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Benefit Coordination

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is not configured to exclude work-related disabilities, as it is not always automatic and instead situational. Configuring an exclusion on this policy would prevent proper handling of these cases until the workers' compensation claim is resolved.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Case managers should review any workers' compensation situations individually and determine how to proceed based on the state's recommendation.

Elimination Period

📝 Configuration Note: HI-STD is configured with a 7 calendar day exclusive elimination period.

Relapse

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: HI-STD allows relapse within a 2-week window across all three absence reasons.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Reopen existing cases as "Relapse" for claim continuation. The carrier determines if the case does not qualify as a relapse event.

Required Paperwork/Communication

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: HI-STD claim forms are not available in the platform and are made available to the employee through the carrier, the state, or the employer, outside the platform.

Payroll Calculations

This policy uses a Base Wage Calculation Method developed from information published by the state of Hawaii. It aims to closely replicate the calculations performed by the employee's TDI insurance carrier or self-insured plan administrator.

Pay History

Uses the employee's Pay Type to determine the wage source: salaried employees use their Effective Salary; hourly employees use the 8 most-recent weeks of paycheck history prior to the Leave Start Date.

📝 Configuration Note: For salaried employees, AbsenceSoft calculates the weekly salary as annual salary divided by 52; Hawaii TDI uses only the weekly salary (HRS §392-7), and annual bonuses usually do not apply to salaried workers. For hourly employees, gross pay per paycheck includes all wages reported to the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) on the check date, including base wages, overtime, commissions, bonuses, and tips; a large bonus or commission within the 8-week window can significantly increase the AWW estimate. At least 2 paychecks are required for hourly employees.

Policy Configuration

A State Weekly Max is configured in the policy's Benefit Settings.

📝 Configuration Note: Current State Weekly Max is $871, effective 01/01/2026.

Hawaii Base Wage Calculation Method Logic

Determine if the employee is Salary or Hourly:
1. First check the optional Pay Type field for Salary or Hourly. If available, use selection.
2. If Pay Type is not entered, check Pay History entry.
  1. If Salary is entered, assume Salary.
  2. If Salary is not entered, assume Hourly.
Retrieve Pay History:
1. If the employee is salaried, retrieve the Pay History → Salary.
2. If the employee is hourly, retrieve Pay History the last 8 weeks of paychecks based on check dates before the Leave Start Date.
  1. Must have at least 2 paychecks.
Calculate the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW):
1. If salaried, divide the Salary by 52 to determine the AWW.
2. If hourly, sum the total wages across the 8 weeks and divide by 8.
Calculate the Base Weekly Wage (BWW):
1. Multiply the AWW by 0.58 and round up to the next higher dollar to determine the estimated weekly benefit.
2. Retrieve the State Weekly Maximum from Benefit Settings within the Policy Configuration.
3. If the calculated benefit exceeds the State Weekly Maximum, cap the result at the maximum.
4. Return this as the Base Weekly Wage.

📝 Configuration Note: The value returned is an AbsenceSoft estimate based on the state's published formula. This estimate should be used for planning purposes only and confirmed against the official state determination before being treated as final.

📝 Configuration Note: Fully commissioned and piecework employees may opt in to HI TDI coverage, but their AWW is calculated differently and is not supported by this method. Confirm eligibility and calculation approach with the state for those cases.

Need Help?

For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.