Alaska: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Yes. Since July 1, 2025, Alaska's voter-approved paid sick leave law requires nearly all employers to let employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked — up to 56 hours a year at employers with 15 or more employees, or 40 hours at smaller ones. It is used for the employee's or a family member's illness or safety needs, carries over year to year, and need not be paid out at separation.
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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 local interaction | Alaska's paid sick leave law, enacted by 2024 Ballot Measure 1 and effective July 1, 2025, codified in the Alaska Wage and Hour Act at AS 23.10.066–.068 and administered by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It is a statewide floor; the Act does not preempt or limit any more generous law or policy (AS 23.10.068). The Alaska Constitution bars the Legislature from repealing a voter initiative for two years after it takes effect. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | Applies to all Alaska employers; the annual amount scales at the 15-employee line. Excluded are minors under 18 working fewer than 30 hours a week, approved apprentices and learners, seasonal nonprofit summer-camp staff, residential work-therapy patients, prisoners, employees under a CBA that expressly waives the right, railroad employees under the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, and those already exempt from Alaska minimum-wage and overtime rules under AS 23.10.055 (including agriculture, domestic service, and federal and state employees). |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | One hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked (AS 23.10.066(1)–(2)), whether hours are sporadic, at different rates, or overtime. Overtime-exempt employees are assumed to work 40 hours a week unless their normal week is shorter (AS 23.10.066(3)). Accrual is capped per year at 56 hours (15+ employees) or 40 hours (fewer than 15), and begins at hire or July 1, 2025, whichever is later, usable as it accrues — no separate waiting period (AS 23.10.066(5)). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Unused paid sick leave carries over to the following year (AS 23.10.066(4)); the annual figure caps yearly accrual and use, not the running balance, which may exceed 40 or 56 hours. The Act sets no separate frontloading election and requires no payout of unused leave. An employer whose existing paid-leave or PTO policy meets the Act's amount, uses, and conditions need not provide additional leave (AS 23.10.066(6)). |
| Qualifying uses and family | The employee's own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, or need for diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive care; care or assistance for a family member (an immediate family member) with those needs; and 'safe leave' for domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking — medical or psychological attention, victim's-aid services, relocation or securing a home, or legal services including any investigation or civil or criminal proceeding (AS 23.10.067(1)). |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | When the need is foreseeable, the employee must make a good-faith effort to give advance notice and to schedule leave so as not to unduly disrupt operations (AS 23.10.067(2)). Documentation may be required only for leave of more than three consecutive workdays; a health-care professional's note is reasonable proof, but the employer may not require it to explain the nature or details of the illness, and victims may pick among listed proofs (AS 23.10.067(3)). An employer may not require the employee to find a replacement (AS 23.10.067(5)). |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | Paid sick leave is paid time off; the Act is not construed to require any financial reimbursement for unused leave at termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation (AS 23.10.068). On rehire by the same employer within six months of separation, previously accrued and unused leave is immediately reinstated; a transferred employee keeps leave accrued at the prior location, and a successor employer honors accrued unused leave (AS 23.10.066(7)). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | Employers must give employees written notice of the right to paid sick leave, its amount, its terms, and the retaliation ban, at hire or within 30 days of the effective date (AS 23.10.068). An employer may not interfere with, restrain, or deny the right, retaliate or take adverse action against an employee who uses or tries to use leave, or count protected leave under an absence-control policy (AS 23.10.067(5)). The Department of Labor and Workforce Development enforces the Act's rights and remedies (AS 23.10.068). |
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Requirements one by one
Governing law
Alaska voters passed Ballot Measure 1 in November 2024, and its paid sick leave
requirement took effect July 1, 2025. The rules now sit in the Alaska Wage and
Hour Act at AS 23.10.066 through 23.10.068 and are enforced by the Department of
Labor and Workforce Development. The law is a floor: it does not preempt or limit
any more generous law or policy (AS 23.10.068), and the Alaska Constitution
prevents the Legislature from repealing a voter initiative for two years after it
takes effect.
Who is covered
Every Alaska employer must provide the leave; only the annual amount changes at
the 15-employee line. A handful of workers are excluded, including minors under
18 who work fewer than 30 hours a week, approved apprentices and learners,
seasonal nonprofit summer-camp staff, residential work-therapy patients,
prisoners, employees under a collective bargaining agreement that expressly
waives the right, railroad employees covered by the federal Railroad
Unemployment Insurance Act, and employees already exempt from Alaska's
minimum-wage and overtime law under AS 23.10.055 (such as agriculture, domestic
service, and federal and state employees).
How leave accrues
Employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, whether
those hours are sporadic, paid at different rates, or overtime (AS
23.10.066(1)–(2)). Salaried overtime-exempt employees are assumed to work a
40-hour week unless their normal week is shorter (AS 23.10.066(3)). Accrual is
capped each year at 56 hours for employers with 15 or more employees and
40 hours for smaller employers. Leave begins to accrue at hire or on July 1,
2025, whichever is later, and is usable as it accrues — there is no separate
waiting period (AS 23.10.066(5)).
Carryover
Unused paid sick leave carries over to the next year (AS 23.10.066(4)). The 40-
or 56-hour figure caps how much an employee accrues and uses in a year, not the
running balance, so a saved-up balance can climb above the annual cap. The Act
sets no separate frontloading election and requires no payout of unused leave.
Uses and family
Leave may be used for the employee's own illness, injury, or health condition and
for diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care; to care for a family member with
those needs; and as "safe leave" tied to domestic violence, sexual assault, or
stalking — for medical or psychological care, victim's-aid services, relocating
or securing a home, or legal services (AS 23.10.067(1)).
What trips people up
Proof can be required only after three straight days. An employer may ask for
documentation only when sick leave runs more than three consecutive workdays, and
even then it cannot demand that a doctor's note spell out the nature or details of
the illness (AS 23.10.067(3)).
The balance is not capped even though yearly use is. Carryover is mandatory,
so an employee's accrued balance can exceed 40 or 56 hours; the cap limits how
much may be earned and used in a single year, not what carries forward (AS
23.10.066(4)).
A 2026 rollback did not become law. During the 2026 session, lawmakers tried
to exempt seasonal workers and very small employers, but both efforts (HB 161 and
a late amendment to HB 193) died when the Legislature adjourned on May 20, 2026,
so the full law described here remains in effect.
Common questions
Does a new employee have to wait to use sick leave?
No. Leave is usable as it accrues, from the start of employment or July 1, 2025,
whichever is later (AS 23.10.066(5)).
Do I get paid for unused sick leave when I leave a job?
Not unless another law or your employer's policy provides it. The Act does not
require any payout of unused paid sick leave at separation (AS 23.10.068).
What if I quit and come back?
If the same employer rehires you within six months, your previously accrued,
unused paid sick leave is immediately reinstated (AS 23.10.066(7)).
Can my employer make me find someone to cover my shift?
No. The employer may not require an employee to find a replacement as a condition
of taking paid sick leave (AS 23.10.067(5)).
Statutes and sources
- AS 23.10.066. Accrual of one hour per 30 hours worked, the 40- and 56-hour
annual caps by employer size, mandatory carryover, immediate use, and
rehire reinstatement.
AS 23.10.066
(accessed July 23, 2026). - AS 23.10.067. Permitted uses, family care, safe leave, notice, and the
documentation limit for absences over three consecutive workdays.
AS 23.10.067
(accessed July 23, 2026). - AS 23.10.068. No required payout of unused leave at separation,
non-preemption of more generous law, and the employer written-notice duty.
AS 23.10.068
(accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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