Hawaii Plumbing License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Hawaii requires of a plumbing business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
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Hawaii plumbing licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, statewide |
| What they are called | Journey Worker Plumber, Master Plumber |
| Who issues it | Board of Electricians and Plumbers |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
Does a plumbing business need a license in Hawaii?
Hawaii issues the Journey Worker Plumber and the Master Plumber for plumbers.
Hawaii licenses plumbers statewide through the Board of Electricians and Plumbers, part of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Professional and Vocational Licensing Division. The board issues the Journey Worker Plumber and Master Plumber licenses, and contracting for plumbing work is a separate license from the Contractors License Board. The state's Regulated Industries Complaints Office states that the handyman exemption does not apply to plumbing work.
The plumbing business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
The plumber license is held by the individual tradesman. A company that contracts to perform plumbing work must separately hold a contractor license from the Hawaii Contractors License Board, which issues contractor licenses to entities as well as to sole proprietors and responsible managing employees.
This records what Hawaii publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Source: Hiring Electricians and Plumbers, Regulated Industries Complaints Office, Hawaii DCCA. Verified 2026-09-03.
What the LLC has to do first
Several states license the plumbing company separately from the individual plumber, so the LLC and the license are two filings, not one.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Hawaii it is made with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a plumbing business in Hawaii covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Hawaii plumbers are asked to show
Plumbing license and registration schemes commonly require proof of general liability cover, and water damage from a failed connection is the claim these policies are bought for.
We do not publish Hawaii premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for plumbers covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.