Hawaii requires a fired or laid-off employee's wages immediately — or, at the latest, on the next working day.
Law: Haw. Rev. Stat. §388-3 · Rules checked October 2026
If you quit, the deadline is the next regular payday — unless you gave at least one pay period's notice, in which case you were owed the pay on your last day.
Hawaii sets no automatic per-day waiting penalty in the timing rule; the state wage claim is the enforcement route.
Your state lets the employer's own policy decide. If the handbook or your offer letter promises payout of accrued vacation — or the company has a practice of paying it — that promise is enforceable. If the policy says unused vacation is forfeited at separation, the state will generally hold you to it.
The free claim goes to Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. It costs nothing and you do not need a lawyer; what you need is the amount computed, the demand already sent where your state rewards one, and the file assembled.
Filing window: set by state law and shorter than people expect — file within weeks, not months.
Compute your Hawaii verdict — free
General information from the published statute — not legal advice. Penalty figures elsewhere on this site are statutory maximums, with willfulness conditions named where the statute names them.