Alaska Paid Sick Leave Law: Requirements Employers Need to Know

Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 1 (according to unofficial election results), which provides for paid sick leave for all employees in Alaska. (The measure also raises the minimum wage over the next several years and imposes restrictions on employer-sponsored meetings about religious or political matters.) This new paid sick leave requirement becomes effective July 1, 2025.

Who Is Eligible for Paid Sick Leave?

The new law applies to all employers and employees in Alaska. There are limited exceptions for apprentices, employees in work therapy programs, prison inmates, and employees subject to the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, among other narrow exceptions.

Accrual and Carryover

All employees are entitled to accrue a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to a cap. Employers with 15 or more employees may cap accrual and usage at 56 hours of paid sick leave per year; employers with fewer than 15 employees may cap accrual and usage at 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. Employers may set higher accrual rates, accrual limits, and usage limits. Exempt employees are assumed to work 40 hours per workweek for accrual purposes unless their normal workweek is fewer than 40 hours.

Employees will begin to accrue paid sick leave on July 1, 2025, or at the commencement of employment, whichever is later.

Paid sick leave carries over to the following year, but it does not affect the amount of leave an employee may use in any given year.

Use of Paid Sick Leave

Employees may use paid sick leave as it is accrued. It may be used for the following:

• An employee’s mental or physical illness, including diagnosis, care, treatment, and preventive medical care.
• Care of or assistance to an employee’s family member for the same reasons. “Family member” means an immediate family member under Alaska Statute Section 39.42.960(11), a domestic partner, a foster child, a legal ward, a person to whom an employee stands in loco parentis, a foster parent, an adoptive parent, a legal guardian, a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child, or any other individual related by blood to the employee or whose close association to the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
• Absences due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking to allow the employee or their family member to obtain medical or psychological attention, receive services from a victim’s aid organization, get relocation assistance or complete the steps to secure an existing home, use legal services, or participate in any investigation or civil or criminal proceeding.

Employees are required to give employers notice if their need for paid sick leave is foreseeable, and they must schedule their foreseeable leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations.

For paid sick leave use of more than three consecutive workdays, an employer may require reasonable documentation that the paid sick leave was used for a covered reason.

Paid sick leave may be used in the smaller of hourly increments or the smallest increment the employer’s payroll system uses to account for other absences or uses of time.

Employers are not required to pay employees on termination for accrued, unused paid sick leave.

Employers may not retaliate against employees for using paid sick leave, interfere with employees’ use of paid sick leave, require employees to find replacement workers to cover the time during which they use paid sick leave, or use an absence-control policy that counts paid sick leave in a way that could lead to any adverse action.

Employer Posting Requirements and Policies

Employers are required to give employees written notice of their entitlement to paid sick leave, the amount of paid sick leave they accrue, and the prohibition against retaliation. This notice must be given at the commencement of employment or within 30 days of the new law’s effective date of July 1, 2025.

Employers may adopt policies that provide more generous accrual rates, accrual caps, usage caps, and other terms, provided those policies comply with the statute.

As we have seen in other states with similar requirements, some Alaska employers may consider implementing separate paid sick leave and vacation policies and carefully evaluate existing paid time off policies. Employers should seek counsel to ensure they understand the new law’s requirements and are prepared to comply by next summer.

Brian Keeley is an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Seattle. © 2024 Jackson Lewis. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.