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Alaska Paid Sick Leave Explained: A Mandate That Did Not Exist in 2024
Alaska has required paid sick leave since 1 July 2025, when Ballot Measure 1 of 2024 took effect. Employees accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked. The annual entitlement is 40 hours at employers with 15 or more employees and 24 hours below that. The same measure also raised the state minimum wage in stages.
Alaska is the newest paid sick leave state in the country. Until the middle of 2025 an Alaska employer had no statutory accrual obligation at all. Ballot Measure 1, approved by voters in November 2024, changed that from 1 July 2025 and added Alaska to a list that had not grown in that part of the country before.
The consequence for employers is unusually concrete. This is not a law that was amended or extended. It arrived where nothing existed, which means every Alaska handbook written before 2025 is silent on a subject that now has a statutory answer, and every payroll configuration for Alaska had no accrual rule to update.
What Alaska requires
| Paid sick leave mandate | None statewide for private employers |
|---|---|
| Governing rule | Your written policy, enforced as written |
| State paid family and medical leave | None. Federal FMLA only, unpaid, at 50+ employees |
| Minimum wage | $13.00 |
| Overtime | Daily over 8 and weekly over 40 |
| Coverage below the 20-employee COBRA line | None. No state obligation under 20 employees |
The numbers, and the 15-employee line
Accrual is one hour for every 30 hours worked, the most common rate in the country. The annual entitlement is 40 hours at employers with 15 or more employees and 24 hours below that, which puts Alaska alongside Arizona as one of only two states running a 24-hour tier.
Twenty-four hours is three working days for most employees, so the smaller tier is exhausted by a single ordinary illness. The rate is the same either side of the line, so crossing 15 employees lifts the ceiling rather than changing the speed of accrual.
Sick leave and the wage rate moved together
Ballot Measure 1 did two things at once: it created the sick leave entitlement and it raised the Alaska minimum wage on a published schedule. For an employer with a minimum-wage workforce those provisions are not independent, because the wage rate is what most of the sick leave hours are paid at.
So an Alaska payroll review has to touch both. Updating the wage rate and leaving the accrual alone, or the reverse, leaves the employer half-compliant with a single instrument, and both halves are published by the same agency.
Where paid leave meets Alaska daily overtime
Alaska is one of a small group of states with a daily overtime rule as well as a weekly one. Paid leave hours are generally not hours worked, so they do not count towards an overtime threshold, and in most states that distinction only shows up across a full week.
In Alaska it can show up in a single shift. An employee who works part of a long day and takes paid sick time for the rest has not worked the hours that would trigger the daily premium, and a timekeeping system that treats the leave hours as worked will pay a premium that is not owed. It is a small configuration detail that only exists in states with a daily rule.
No local layer, no state family leave programme
There is no municipal paid sick leave ordinance in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau, and Alaska runs no compulsory paid family and medical leave contribution programme. Federal FMLA applies unchanged at 50 or more employees, unpaid.
That leaves Alaska simple to administer and easy to miss. The risk for an out-of-state employer is not complexity, it is that Alaska was a no-mandate state very recently and a remote hire there now carries an accrual, notice and record-keeping obligation that did not exist when the last handbook was written. Catching changes like that before they become back-pay questions is what HR outsourcing is for.
FMLA, remote-hire exposure and voluntary policy drafting: paid leave fundamentals.
For Alaska specifically: the accrual and carryover rules above are statutory in Alaska, not discretionary, the wage floor those hours are paid at is $13.00, and below the federal 20-employee COBRA threshold there is no Alaska continuation requirement at all. HR outsourcing in Alaska keeps that in the handbook and in payroll.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Alaska require paid sick leave?
No. Alaska has no statewide requirement for private employers, so whatever your handbook says is the enforceable rule, including on carryover and payout. Hours you do pay are paid at $13.00.
What pay rate applies to leave hours in Alaska?
Minimum wage in Alaska is $13.00. Overtime: Daily over 8 and weekly over 40. Paid leave hours generally do not count toward the overtime threshold because they are not hours worked.
Does health coverage continue after separation in Alaska?
Only federal COBRA, at 20 or more employees. Alaska has no state continuation law, so a smaller employer owes nothing after separation unless the handbook promises it.
Does Alaska run a paid family and medical leave programme?
No. Federal FMLA is the only family and medical leave floor in Alaska: 12 workweeks, unpaid, at employers with 50 or more employees.
When did Alaska start requiring paid sick leave?
On 1 July 2025. Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 1 in November 2024 and the paid sick leave provisions took effect the following July. Any Alaska handbook or payroll configuration that predates that has no accrual rule in it, because until then Alaska had no statewide requirement at all.
Does the same Alaska ballot measure change the minimum wage?
Yes. Ballot Measure 1 raised the Alaska minimum wage on a published schedule as well as creating the sick leave entitlement, so the two move under the same instrument. An Alaska employer reviewing one should be checking the other at the same time, because the wage rate is also what most sick leave hours are paid at for a minimum-wage workforce.
How does the Alaska 15-employee line work?
It sets the annual ceiling, not whether the leave exists. At 15 or more employees the entitlement is 40 hours a year. Below 15 it is 24 hours. Accrual is one hour for every 30 hours worked on both sides of the line, so an employer that grows past 15 raises the cap rather than changing the rate.
How does Alaska daily overtime interact with sick leave?
Alaska is one of the few states with a daily overtime rule as well as a weekly one, and paid leave hours are generally not hours worked, so they do not push an employee over a daily or weekly overtime threshold. That matters more in Alaska than elsewhere because the daily rule makes the distinction bite on a single long shift rather than only across a week.
Is this a PEO?
No. No co-employment and no employer-of-record change: your company stays the employer. HR outsourcing, powered by isolved.
Anthony leads HR outsourcing strategy at Business Executive Group, a national HR outsourcing firm serving employers across every state. BEG HR outsourcing is powered by isolved, with certified HR professionals building and maintaining state-correct leave policy as laws change.
Source: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Wage and Hour Administration. Compare every state on paid sick leave by state. General leave information, not legal advice.
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