Hawaii's Mini-WARN Act — 60 Days' Notice, a Dislocated Worker Allowance, and a $500-a-Day Penalty

Hawaii is one of the states that wrote its own layoff-notice law instead of relying on the federal WARN Act alone. The Hawaii Dislocated Workers Act, Chapter 394B of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires covered employers to give workers 60 days' written notice before a closing, partial closing, divestiture, or relocation — plus a dislocated worker allowance that tops up unemployment benefits for up to four weeks.

Under federal WARN, notice is generally required only at employers with 100 or more full-time workers. Hawaii's threshold is half that, so a 60-worker business outside federal coverage can still owe notice under Hawaii law.

Who the Hawaii law covers

A "covered establishment" under the Hawaii law is any industrial, commercial, or other business entity that employed 50 or more people in Hawaii at any time during the preceding 12 months. The state and its political subdivisions are excluded, so the law targets private and quasi-public employers.

That 50-person test is the law's main expansion beyond federal WARN, which counts only full-time workers toward its 100-employee threshold and excludes people who worked fewer than 20 hours a week or fewer than six months in the prior year.

What triggers notice

Four events trigger the Hawaii notice duty: a closing (permanent shutdown of all operations), a partial closing (permanent shutdown of part of operations), a divestiture (transfer of the establishment to another employer through a sale, merger, bankruptcy, or other takeover that leaves employees dislocated), or a relocation (removal of all or substantially all operations to a location outside Hawaii).

Note what is missing: an ordinary mass layoff not tied to one of those four events. Federal WARN covers large mass layoffs as a standalone trigger; Hawaii's statute is built around transactions and shutdowns, so an unconnected layoff may not trigger the state duty.

Who gets the notice, and when

An employer in a covered establishment must give written notice to each employee and to the director of the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) at least 60 days before the closing, divestiture, partial closing, or relocation occurs.

There is one timing exception. An employer actively seeking a buyer for a sale, transfer, or merger does not have to give notice until it has entered into a binding agreement for the deal that results in a divestiture. Once the agreement is binding, the 60-day clock applies.

The dislocated worker allowance

Hawaii's most distinctive feature is the dislocated worker allowance. An affected employee who does not receive supplemental unemployment compensation under a collective bargaining agreement is eligible for employer payments equal to the difference between the employee's average weekly wages before the event and the weekly unemployment insurance benefit amount, for a total of four weeks on a valid claim.

In plain terms, the allowance tops up unemployment benefits toward the worker's prior weekly wage for a month. It is not a substitute for unemployment insurance, and it ends after four weeks — but for workers whose benefit replaces only part of their pay, it is money most states' WARN laws do not provide. New Jersey and Maine pair longer notice with mandatory severance; Hawaii pairs standard 60-day notice with a short wage top-up.

What happens when an employer breaks the law

An employer that violates the notice requirement is liable to each affected employee for back pay and benefits for the period of violation, up to 60 days, reduced by wages paid during the notice period and by voluntary, unconditional payments not required by a legal obligation.

On top of that, an employer that fails to give notice faces a civil penalty of up to $500 for each day of the violation, paid into the state's employment and training fund — avoidable by satisfying its liability to each affected employee within three weeks after the closing. A court may also award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party.

How Hawaii compares

Hawaii's law sits in the middle of the state mini-WARN spectrum. Its 60-day notice period matches federal WARN, unlike New Jersey and Maine, which require 90 days. Its 50-employee threshold is below federal law's 100 and Illinois's 75, but above Wisconsin's 25 for closings. Its relocation trigger is broader than a pure shutdown test, and its four-week allowance is unique in this series so far.

Reading Hawaii's numbers

Layoff Atlas's Hawaii page currently holds 504 non-cancelled imported notices, but only 720 reported workers — because 498 of those notices carry no worker count, so the total is a floor, not a full count. In 2026, the page shows 33 notices, and the newest official notice is dated October 15, 2026: a Ben Bridge closure effective December 31, 2026.

Nationally, the current 90-day window holds 673 notices covering 63,421 reported workers, with 31 counts unavailable. Washington (17,050), California (13,427), Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Georgia (2,492) lead the states. The heaviest upcoming week is November 25, with 9,645 workers scheduled, followed by the current week of October 28 at 8,110.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. Coverage and reporting rules vary by state, missing source coverage is not zero layoffs, and worker totals exclude unavailable counts — which is why Hawaii's 720-worker figure understates the real scale of its notices.

Data source: Layoff Atlas