Hawaii salary history ban: HRS 378-2.4 for recruiters

Hawaii bars employers and employment agencies, and anyone acting for them, from asking job applicants about salary history or relying on it to set pay. The rule is Hawaii Revised Statutes section 378-2.4, added by Act 108 of 2018, and the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission describes it as in force "since 2019." Hawaii's version has two details worth knowing before you pick up the phone: its definition of "inquire" covers searching public records for a candidate's pay, and it expressly lets an employer consider and verify history the candidate volunteers without prompting.

The statute

Under HRS § 378-2.4(a), no "employer, employment agency, or employee or agent thereof" shall:

1. "Inquire about the salary history of an applicant for employment"; or
2. "Rely on the salary history of an applicant in determining the salary, benefits, or other compensation for the applicant during the hiring process, including the negotiation of an employment contract."

"Salary history" includes an applicant's "current or prior wage, benefits, or other compensation," but not "any objective measure of the applicant's productivity, such as revenue, sales, or other production reports."

Who is covered

• Employers with one or more employees. Chapter 378, part I defines an employer as any person, including the State and its political subdivisions and "any agent of such person, having one or more employees."
• Employment agencies and their staff. The section names employment agencies directly, and the chapter defines an employment agency as any person in the business of providing employment information, procuring employment for applicants, or providing employees for placement with employers. Agency recruiters are covered in their own right, not just as the client's agent.
• Individual recruiters. "Employee or agent thereof" reaches the person making the call.

Subsection (c) excludes three situations: applicants for internal transfer or promotion with their current employer; verifying non-salary information or running a background check (with a catch, below); and public employee positions whose pay is set by collective bargaining.

"Inquire" includes searching

Hawaii's definition of "inquire" has two limbs. The first is the obvious one: communicating any question or statement, in writing, verbally or otherwise, to the applicant, their current or prior employer, or a current or former employee or agent of that employer, "for the purpose of obtaining an applicant's salary history." The second is less common:

"Conduct a search of publicly available records or reports for the purpose of obtaining an applicant's salary history"

This matters in Hawaii, where many candidates come from state, county or university roles whose pay may be public. Looking up a candidate's government salary to anchor an offer is an inquiry under the statute even though you never spoke to anyone. The definition also confirms what is not an inquiry: "informing an applicant, in writing or otherwise, about the proposed or anticipated salary or salary range for the position."

Candidates leaving government jobs

The public-records limb changes how a Hawaii desk should handle candidates from state, county or university employers. A sourcer who checks a published salary list to see whether a candidate is "affordable" is conducting a search for the purpose of obtaining salary history, which the statute treats as an inquiry. The same goes for pulling a pay figure from a news story or a published report about a named person.

What you can do is tell the candidate the range and ask what they want. Public employees often know exactly how their step and grade translate to pay, and many will say whether the range works without being asked about history. If the candidate raises their government pay without prompting, subsection (b) applies like any other volunteered disclosure. The definition excludes productivity measures, so asking about a sales or revenue track record is still fine for the roles where that matters.

What is banned and what is allowed

Volunteered pay: the "without prompting" test

Subsection (b) is one of the clearest volunteered-history rules in the country. If an applicant "voluntarily and without prompting" discloses salary history, the employer or agency may consider it in setting salary, benefits and other compensation, and may verify it.

The test is whether the candidate raised it unprompted. Questions such as "Is there anything about your current package I should know?" or "Would you be taking a pay cut?" invite a history answer, and a disclosure in response is arguably prompted. Keep questions about the future: what they want, when they can start, what they would lose by leaving.

Even where Hawaii allows it, using a volunteered figure to set an offer can repeat a past pay gap. Hawaii's equal pay section, HRS § 378-2.3, sits in the same chapter, which is a good reason to set offers from the role's range and the candidate's skills, and to leave a volunteered number out of the submittal; see what not to write in interview notes.

How it fits with Hawaii's pay range law

Since January 1, 2024, HRS § 378-2.8 requires job listings to disclose "an hourly rate or salary range that reasonably reflects the actual expected compensation." It does not apply to internal transfers or promotions, collectively bargained public positions, or "employers having fewer than fifty employees." The commission's pay transparency FAQ pairs the two rules: an employer must disclose the range and cannot ask what the candidate earned.

For employers under 50, the history ban still applies and the range is optional. Offering it anyway gives the conversation an anchor that is not the candidate's old pay. Details are in our Hawaii pay transparency guide.

Enforcement

• Hawaii Civil Rights Commission. HRS § 378-4 gives the commission jurisdiction over the discriminatory practices in part I of chapter 378, which includes section 378-2.4. A person claiming to be aggrieved may file a complaint under the procedure in chapter 368.
• 180-day deadline. HRS § 368-11(c) bars complaints filed more than 180 days after the practice, or after the last occurrence in a pattern of ongoing practice.
• Remedies. Remedies run through the commission's process under chapter 368. The salary history section does not set its own fine schedule.

A Hawaii script

Raising pay

"The range for this role is $68,000 to $79,000, with medical and a retirement plan (example figures). What are you looking for?"

When the candidate asks whether you need their pay stub

"No. We don't ask about salary history in Hawaii. Tell me what you're looking for and I'll tell you honestly where that sits in the range."

When the candidate volunteers it

"Thanks. I'll stick to what you're asking for." Note the expectation, not the volunteered history.

When the hiring manager asks

"Hawaii doesn't allow us to ask, and that includes looking up public salary records. Her expectation is $75,000 and she has a vesting date in March that affects her start."

For answering candidates who push back on the range, see how recruiters answer candidate salary questions.

Hawaii checklist

1. Remove salary history fields from applications, screens and intake templates for Hawaii roles.
2. Tell sourcers not to look up candidates' public salaries.
3. Tell background check vendors not to report pay, and wall off anything they report.
4. Post the range if the employer has 50 or more employees, and share it early either way.
5. Ask for expectations with the wording in salary expectation questions.

For how other states treat a volunteered figure, see salary history ban states.