Paid Sick Leave in Alaska: Who Qualifies and How Much You Earn

As of July 1, 2025, Alaska law requires nearly all private employers to provide paid sick leave, and workers earn it at a rate of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. This is a brand-new statewide right created by Ballot Measure 1, the initiative Alaska voters approved in November 2024. The annual amount you can use depends on your employer's size: if your employer has 15 or more employees, you can use up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year; if your employer has fewer than 15 employees, you can use up to 40 hours per year. Before this law took effect, Alaska had no paid sick leave mandate at all, so this is a significant change for hundreds of thousands of workers across the state.

Alaska's Paid Sick Leave Rule at a Glance

Ballot Measure 1 did two main things: it raised Alaska's minimum wage on a set schedule and it created a paid sick leave entitlement. The sick leave provisions are the focus here. The core mechanics are straightforward:

• Accrual rate: You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you actually work.
• Annual use cap (large employers): Employers with 15 or more employees must allow you to use at least 56 hours per year.
• Annual use cap (small employers): Employers with fewer than 15 employees must allow you to use at least 40 hours per year.
• When accrual begins: Accrual started July 1, 2025, the effective date of the leave provisions, and begins at the start of employment for new hires after that date.
• Pay rate: Paid sick leave is paid at your normal hourly wage.

Because this law is new and the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development is still issuing guidance, you should confirm the exact caps and any administrative rules against the official source before relying on them for a dispute. The statutory figures above (30:1 accrual, 56-hour and 40-hour caps) come directly from the text of the measure.

Which Employers and Workers Are Covered

The paid sick leave requirement applies broadly to private employers in Alaska, regardless of size, with the size threshold affecting only the annual use cap (40 versus 56 hours), not whether the requirement applies at all. Even a very small business with a handful of employees must provide accruable paid sick leave.

That said, the measure does not cover every worker. Certain categories of employees that are excluded from Alaska's minimum wage and hour protections are also generally outside the sick leave requirement. These can include some agricultural workers, certain individuals employed in specific exempt occupations, and others carved out by Alaska's wage statutes. The definition of who counts as a covered "employee" tracks Alaska's existing wage and hour framework, so if you are exempt from Alaska minimum wage you may also be exempt here. Because these carve-outs are technical, check your specific job classification with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development rather than assuming you are or are not covered.

What You Can Use Paid Sick Leave For

Alaska's law lets you use accrued paid sick leave for more than just your own cold or flu. Covered uses include:

• Your own health: Your mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, including diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive care.
• Family care: Caring for a family member who has an illness, injury, or health condition, or who needs diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive care. Alaska uses a broad definition of family member that reaches beyond just a spouse and children.
• Safe time: Absences connected to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking affecting you or a family member, such as seeking medical attention, counseling, legal help, relocation, or services from a victim-services organization.

Employers may require reasonable documentation for longer absences and may set reasonable notice procedures, but they cannot deny leave for a legitimate covered use or retaliate against you for taking it.

Carryover, Caps, and Payout

Under the measure, accrued but unused paid sick leave generally carries over from year to year. However, an employer can limit how much you actually use in a single year to the applicable cap (40 or 56 hours). Many employers comply with carryover obligations by simply letting the balance roll over while capping annual use, or by front-loading the full annual amount at the start of the year so they do not have to track carryover.

Alaska's law does not require employers to pay out unused sick leave when you quit or are terminated, which is different from how accrued vacation is sometimes treated. If you are rehired within a short window, however, previously accrued sick leave may be reinstated. Confirm your employer's specific policy and the current state guidance, because the practical rules on reinstatement and front-loading are areas where employer practices and agency interpretation matter.

Local Ordinances in Alaska

Unlike some states where cities like Seattle, San Francisco, or New York layer their own paid sick leave ordinances on top of state law, Alaska does not currently have significant municipal paid sick leave laws in places such as Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau. The statewide standard created by Ballot Measure 1 is the governing rule for Alaska workers. If a local ordinance were ever enacted, the general principle is that employees receive whichever standard is more generous, but as of 2026 the state law is what applies across Alaska.

How Alaska Compares to Federal Law

There is no general federal law requiring private employers to provide paid sick leave. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and requires overtime at one-and-a-half times your regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, but it says nothing about paid sick days. The temporary federal paid-leave requirements created during the COVID-19 pandemic expired and were never made permanent. That means a worker's right to paid sick leave depends entirely on state and local law, which is exactly why Alaska's new mandate matters so much.

For context, Alaska's minimum wage also rose under the same ballot measure. As of 2026 the state minimum wage is well above the federal $7.25 floor and is scheduled to continue increasing before being indexed to inflation. Because the minimum wage changes on a yearly schedule, confirm the current figure with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development rather than relying on a number that may be out of date.

How Paid Sick Leave Interacts With PTO and FMLA

If your employer already offers a paid time off (PTO) or general leave policy that is at least as generous as the law and that can be used for the same purposes, the employer can typically satisfy the sick leave requirement through that existing policy. In other words, your employer does not have to stack a separate sick leave bank on top of an equally generous PTO plan, as long as the PTO meets or exceeds the accrual rate, the caps, and the permitted uses, and does not impose harsher conditions.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a separate, unpaid protection. FMLA allows eligible employees of covered employers (generally those with 50 or more employees) to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave for serious health conditions and certain family needs. Alaska also has its own state family leave law for public-sector employees and some others. Paid sick leave and FMLA can run at the same time: you might use Alaska paid sick leave to receive pay during the early part of an FMLA absence, while FMLA protects your job for the full 12 weeks. They are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

How to Enforce Your Rights

If your employer denies you earned paid sick leave, refuses to let you accrue it, or retaliates against you for using it, you can take action:

• Keep records. Save pay stubs, schedules, time records, and any written sick leave policy so you can show your hours worked and accrued balance.
• Raise it internally. Many issues are resolved when you point your employer or HR to the requirements of Ballot Measure 1.
• File a complaint. Contact the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Wage and Hour Administration, which enforces the state's wage, hour, and sick leave laws. Retaliation for asserting these rights is prohibited.

Because Alaska's paid sick leave law is recent and the agency is still developing detailed guidance and forms, always verify the current procedures, deadlines, and figures directly with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development before filing. This article explains the framework, but the official agency is the authoritative source for the precise, up-to-date rules that apply to your situation.

Official Alaska Sources

This page is based on Alaska employment law. Rules and figures change — verify the current details directly with the official Alaska sources below. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

• Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development — official Alaska agency.
• Wage and Hour (Labor Standards and Safety) - File a Wage Claim

Federal law and local ordinances may also apply. Federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act set a national floor, and your city or county may add protections (such as a higher local minimum wage or paid sick leave). Check both alongside Alaska state law.