HST to EST

A 9-to-5 Eastern schedule runs from 4:00 AM to noon in Honolulu in winter and from 3:00 AM to 11:00 AM in summer. Remote workers who move to the islands for a New York or Boston employer usually negotiate a later start, because the first meeting of the East Coast day lands before sunrise in Hawaii. The upside is a free afternoon: by 11:00 AM or noon Hawaii time, New York has gone home.

The gap changes because only New York moves its clocks. Hawaii has stayed on UTC−10 year-round since 1967, while the East Coast goes from EST (UTC−5) to EDT (UTC−4) on the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November. The New York Stock Exchange's 9:30 AM open is 4:30 AM in Honolulu in winter and 3:30 AM in summer.

Sunday NFL games that start at 1:00 PM Eastern kick off at 7:00 AM in Hawaii in September and October and at 8:00 AM from November onward. Monday Night Football is a mid-afternoon broadcast on the islands. The same applies to awards shows and election coverage: when networks start calling races at 7:00 PM Eastern in November, it is 2:00 PM in Honolulu.

Nonstop flights between New York and Honolulu take around 11 hours westbound. Leave JFK in the morning and you land in Hawaii in the afternoon of the same day, having gained five or six hours on the clock. For the West Coast comparison, see Hawaii to Pacific time.

The overlap of two office days is short: 8:00 AM to noon in Honolulu covers 1:00 to 5:00 PM in New York in winter, and in summer 8:00 to 11:00 AM in Hawaii matches 2:00 to 5:00 PM. Schedule calls with Hawaii early in the Hawaiian day and as late as possible on the East Coast.