Hawaii Ban-the-Box

Hawaii first passed their “Ban the Box” legislation in 1998 to protect ex-offenders. As an example for employers to be on guard for revised versions, recent legislation redefined the “look back” period to reduce the potential employment discrimination against individuals with older cases and less severe offenses. The “legislature finds that the ten-year ‘look back’ period for conviction records should be shortened to reduce unnecessary employment discrimination against individuals with old and relatively minor conviction records, in furtherance of economic self-sufficiency, and to reduce crime and recidivism rates.”

The amended Hawaii Ban the Box Act will “limit the convictions that may be used in employment decisions, from all convictions in the most recent ten years, to felony convictions that occurred in the most recent seven years and misdemeanor convictions that occurred in the most recent five years”. The revised act “is not intended to amend or affect existing exceptions that explicitly allow the use of criminal history-related records for certain occupations, such as department of education employees, and specific circumstances, such as sex offender registration.”