Unemployment Benefits
HRS 383-30 — quitting without good cause or a firing for misconduct stops benefits until five times the weekly amount is earned again
- A claim is made for each week, and the claimant registers for work and keeps reporting as the department requires.
- The claimant is able to work and available for work.
- There is a waiting period of one week in each benefit year.
- Wages in the base period were at least twenty six times the weekly benefit amount, earned in at least two quarters.
Who handles this in Hawaii: Unemployment Insurance, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Hawaii directory.
A person who left work voluntarily without good cause, or was discharged for misconduct connected with work, is disqualified until they have since been paid wages in covered employment equal to at least five times the weekly benefit amount.
Work is not suitable, and refusing it does not cost benefits, where the job is open because of a strike or lockout, its pay or conditions are substantially worse than usual for similar local work, or it requires joining a company union or leaving a labor organization.
Sources for this section (2)
- HRS 383-29 — Eligibility for benefits
- HRS 383-30 — Disqualification for benefits
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Hawaii attorney.