Alaska: Bereavement Leave Requirements
The short answer
No separate bereavement allotment. Alaska requires covered employers to provide accrued paid sick leave, but AS 23.10.067 limits statutory use to the employee's health needs, care for a family member's health needs, and specified domestic-violence, sexual-assault, or stalking needs. Death, a funeral, a memorial, grief, or reproductive loss as such is not a listed use; an employee's own qualifying health condition after a loss may independently fit the law.
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This is the general rule in Alaska. Ezel applies current Alaska law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and type of leave | No standalone private-sector bereavement bank. AS 23.10.066-.069 requires paid sick leave, but AS 23.10.067 does not list death, funeral, memorial, grief, reproductive loss, or post-death tasks as qualifying uses |
|---|---|
| Covered employers and employees | Paid sick leave generally covers Alaska employers and employees, including part-time workers, subject to AS 23.10.069 exclusions such as certain minors, student learners, seasonal nonprofit-camp workers, work-therapy patients, prisoners, an express CBA waiver, and specified AS 23.10.055 workers |
| Qualifying deaths, relationships, and events | No statutory covered-death or bereavement category. An employee's own qualifying mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition after a loss—or qualifying care for a family member—may independently support sick leave |
| Leave amount, timing, and caps | No per-death allotment or bereavement completion window. Paid sick leave accrues at 1 hour per 30 hours worked; annual accrual and use are capped at 56 hours for employers with 15+ employees and 40 hours for smaller employers, unless the employer sets a higher limit |
| Paid or unpaid; use of existing leave | No separate paid or unpaid bereavement bank. A qualifying AS 23.10.067 absence is paid from the statutory sick-leave balance; a compliant PTO plan may satisfy the sick-leave requirement without adding another bank |
| Notice, documentation, and proof | No bereavement-specific proof rule. For qualifying sick leave, foreseeable need requires a good-faith advance-notice effort; proof may be required only after more than 3 consecutive workdays, and health or safety information must be treated as confidential medical records |
| Job protection, attendance, and confidentiality | No bereavement-specific restoration or attendance right. Employers may not interfere with statutory paid-sick-leave rights or retaliate for exercising them, and must protect covered health or safety information |
| Enforcement, remedies, and deadlines | No bereavement-specific complaint or penalty. Alaska Wage and Hour enforces qualifying paid-sick-leave rights under AS 23.10.050-.150; death-related absence alone does not trigger those remedies |
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Alaska paid sick leave is not bereavement leave
Alaska does not create a separate block of funeral, memorial, bereavement, or
reproductive-loss leave for ordinary private-sector employees. Since July 1,
2025, Alaska has required paid sick leave, but AS 23.10.067 controls when that
bank may be used.
Alaska Stat. § 23.10.067(1)(A), (B) names the employee's own mental or physical
illness, injury, or health condition and care or assistance for a family
member's corresponding health needs; the same use list includes specified
needs related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Death, grief,
a funeral, a memorial, reproductive loss, and post-death financial or legal
tasks are not standalone qualifying uses.
An employee may still qualify after a loss for a different reason that the law
does name. For example, the employee's own serious grief-related mental or
physical health condition may independently support paid sick leave. That is
use of the ordinary sick-leave balance for a health condition, not a new
allotment triggered by death.
Under Alaska Stat. § 23.10.066(1), (2), the paid bank accrues at one hour for
every 30 hours worked. Employers with at least 15 employees must permit up to
56 hours of accrual and use per year; smaller employers must permit up to 40
hours. A compliant PTO plan may satisfy the statute, so long as the available
time can be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions.
For a qualifying use, Alaska Stat. § 23.10.067(2) calls for a good-faith
advance-notice effort when leave is foreseeable, and Alaska Stat.
§ 23.10.067(3) permits reasonable documentation only after more than three
consecutive workdays. Health or
safety information must be kept as confidential medical records, and
interference or retaliation is prohibited. These are paid-sick-leave
protections, not bereavement procedures.
What trips people up
The annual hours are not a per-death benefit. Forty or 56 hours is the
annual statutory sick-leave limit shared across all qualifying uses.
A family definition does not add death as a use. Family relationships matter
when the employee provides health-related care or assistance. The relationship
alone does not turn a funeral or memorial into protected sick leave.
Grief and a health condition are different statutory questions. Grief is
not listed as a standalone event, while a qualifying mental or physical health
condition after a loss may independently fit AS 23.10.067(1)(A).
Common questions
Does Alaska require three or five bereavement days?
No. Alaska sets no separate private-sector minimum number of bereavement days.
Can Alaska paid sick leave be used after a death?
Only when the absence independently fits AS 23.10.067, such as the employee's
own qualifying mental or physical health condition, or when the employer's
policy voluntarily permits broader use. Death itself adds no statutory hours.
Can an employer ask for an obituary or death certificate?
Alaska has no bereavement-specific proof list. A voluntary bereavement policy
controls that request. A qualifying statutory sick-leave request follows the
more-than-three-consecutive-workdays documentation threshold.
Statutes and sources
- Alaska Stat. §§ 23.10.066 and 23.10.067. Accrual caps, permitted uses,
notice, documentation, confidentiality, and protection. Official DOL
statutory compilation
(October 2025; accessed July 15, 2026). - Alaska Stat. § 23.10.069. Statutory paid-sick-leave exemptions, reproduced
in the same official compilation. Official DOL compilation
(accessed July 15, 2026). - Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Current coverage,
accrual, use, and proof guidance. Official FAQ
(accessed July 15, 2026). - Alaska Division of Elections. Official enacted initiative text that added
AS 23.10.066-.069. Ballot Measure 1 text
(accessed July 15, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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