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This guide provides essential information about Alaska’s new paid sick leave and how it applies to your business beginning July 1, 2025. The law applies to any employer with at least one employee in Alaska, including full-time, part-time, and temporary workers, with some limitations.
Sick Time Requirements Based on Employer Size
- Determining Employer Size: For the purpose of this law, the number of employees typically refers to those performing work within Alaska. Employers should review the full text of the law or consult legal counsel if they are close to the employee count thresholds to ensure accurate classification.
- Employers with 15 or more employees (large employers): Must provide at least 56 hours of paid sick leave per year, with a maximum usage cap of 56 hours.
- Employers with 14 or fewer employees (small employers): Must provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, with a maximum usage cap of 40 hours.
Accrual Rate: All eligible employees must accrue sick leave at a minimum rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year (small employers) or 56 hours (large employers).
Payout and Carryover:
- Carryover Requirement: Employers must allow employees to carryover all unused accrued sick leave hours into the next year, regardless of employer size or method used for granting sick leave.
- Voluntary Cash-Out: Employers may establish a policy that allows employees to request a cash out of accrued paid sick leave. However, employers cannot mandate payout of yearly sick leave accrual.
The state’s law does not address the frontloading method for paid sick leave or any aspects of this method. However, a frontloading method policy does not relieve an employer from the carryover requirement.
There are other requirements under the state sick leave law, which you may read more about here. Some of these requirements are also detailed further below. Employers can also read up on general sick leave best practices here.
Employee Eligibility & Use
All employees in Alaska are entitled to paid sick leave, with a few exceptions. Employees may use earned sick time for themselves or a family member for any of the following reasons:
- mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
- medical care, a medical diagnosis, or treatment, as well as receiving preventative medical care services; and
- absences due to matters relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Some employees are exempt from this law, such as certain apprentices, minors working less than 30 hours in a week, some agriculture, aquaculture, domestic service, and federal and state employees.
You should review the law and resources at the bottom of this page to understand additional requirements under the Alaska law, such as increments of use, how hours are determined for exempt and salaried employees, how pay is calculated, who is a “family member,” what type of notice and documentation an employer may require, pay statement requirements, and how sick time is handled upon termination of employment.
Interaction with an Employer’s Existing Policies
An employer’s paid time off (PTO) plan or other type of paid leave (including sick or vacation time) can satisfy this law if, at a minimum, the plan meets the law’s requirements (e.g., accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the sick leave, etc.). Additionally, nothing prohibits an employer from providing more generous leave policies than the minimum required by the law.
Notice Requirements
Employers must provide written notice to each employee at the time of hiring or by July 1, 2025, whichever is later, that includes, but is not limited to:
- employees are entitled to paid sick leave starting July 1, 2025;
- amount of paid sick leave to which employees are entitled;
- terms of paid sick leave’s use; and
- retaliation against employees who request or use paid sick leave is prohibited.
The state has not provided a sample notice for employers to use; therefore, a notice should be generated by the employer, similar to other official employment documents like hiring paperwork.
If you set up a separate sick leave policy in Justworks as a PEO customer, we will automatically add this balance information to employees' paystubs, and it is available to your employees at any time when they log into the Justworks platform.
Limitations on Paid Sick Leave
Employees in Alaska begin accruing sick leave on July 1, 2025, or on their first day of work, and may be allowed to use earned sick time as it is accrued.
An employer is not required to pay out accrued, unused paid sick time when an employee separates from employment with the employer.
Keep in mind that if a separated employee is rehired within six months of separation, the employer must reinstate any previously unused earned sick time for immediate use and accrue additional earned sick time at the time of rehire.
Resources & Notes
- Help Center: Sick and Safe Leave
- Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development: Paid Sick Time
- Mineral: Alaska Sick Leave*
*Be sure you’re logged into your Justworks account with administrative permissions to access Mineral.
Disclaimer
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or tax advice. If you have any legal or tax questions regarding this content or related issues, then you should consult with your professional legal or tax advisor.