Alaska Sick Leave Law: Accrual, Usage, and Retaliation

Alaska’s sick leave law took effect on July 1, 2025, and it requires nearly every private-sector employer in the state to let workers earn paid time off for illness, medical care, family needs, and safety-related situations. You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work, up to either 40 or 56 hours a year depending on how many people your employer has on payroll. The rules sit at AS 23.10.066 through AS 23.10.069 and came out of Ballot Measure 1, the initiative voters approved in November 2024.¹

Who the Law Covers

The law reaches private employers of every size operating in Alaska. Employer size is measured in full-time equivalents, and hours worked by part-time, full-time, and seasonal staff all count toward that number.²

Several groups of workers are excluded:¹

Minors under 18 who work fewer than 30 hours a week. If a minor hits 30 hours in a given week, they earn sick leave on all hours worked that week.
Student learners on a plan approved by the Commissioner of the Department of Labor.
Employees of nonprofit residential summer camps.
Patients doing work therapy in residential drug or alcohol treatment programs.
Employed prisoners.
Union employees whose collective bargaining agreement expressly waives paid sick leave in clear, unambiguous terms.
Workers exempt from minimum wage and overtime under AS 23.10.055, including agriculture, aquaculture, domestic service, and government employment. Salaried employees exempt under AS 23.10.055(a)(9) do still get paid sick leave.

How Much You Earn and the Annual Cap

Accrual starts on your first day of work at the rate of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, whether those are regular hours or overtime.³ The annual cap depends on employer size:

15 or more full-time equivalents: up to 56 hours per year.
Fewer than 15 full-time equivalents: up to 40 hours per year.

An employer can set a higher cap voluntarily. For salaried employees who are exempt from overtime under federal law, accrual is calculated on a 40-hour workweek unless the person’s normal schedule is shorter.³

You can use hours as soon as you accrue them. The statute doesn’t authorize a waiting period for new hires.³

Carryover, Front-Loading, and Existing PTO

Unused hours carry over into the next year. The annual usage cap still limits how much you can actually spend in any given year, so a big carryover bank doesn’t let you exceed 40 or 56 hours of use.³

Employers can skip the hour-by-hour tracking by front-loading the full annual allotment at the start of the year. Under the state’s proposed regulations, an employer who front-loads is not required to carry unused hours forward.²

An employer with an existing PTO policy doesn’t have to create a separate sick leave bucket, as long as the PTO accrues at least one hour per 30 worked, can be used for every reason the sick leave law covers, meets the 40- or 56-hour minimum, and the employer notifies workers that PTO is being used to satisfy the sick leave requirement. If you spend all your PTO on vacation and have nothing left when you get sick, the employer doesn’t owe you extra sick time on top of that.²

What You Can Use Sick Leave For

The law covers three broad categories of need:⁴

Your own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; diagnosis, treatment, or care; and preventive appointments like physicals or screenings.
The same health-related reasons when you’re caring for a family member.
Domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking affecting you or a family member. That includes medical or psychological care, services from a victim’s aid organization, relocation or securing your home, and legal services including investigations and court proceedings.

Sick leave also covers a public health emergency that closes your workplace or your child’s school or daycare.¹

The definition of family member is broad. It includes children, spouses, parents, domestic partners, foster children, legal wards, foster and adoptive parents, legal guardians, anyone who stood in a parental role when you were a minor, and anyone related by blood or whose close association is the equivalent of a family relationship.⁴ That last piece is where Alaska goes further than a lot of other states. A close friend you treat as family, or a long-term partner who doesn’t fit neatly into a legal category, can qualify.

Requesting Leave and Providing Documentation

When leave is foreseeable, give your employer reasonable notice. For unexpected illness or emergencies, notify them as soon as you can. You’re paid at your regular rate for the hours you would have worked.¹

Employers can require you to use leave in increments, but the increment can’t be larger than the smallest unit their payroll system tracks for absences. A system that records time in 15-minute blocks can’t charge you a full hour for a 20-minute absence.⁴

Your employer can’t ask for a doctor’s note unless you use more than three consecutive workdays of paid sick leave. Even then, a simple note confirming the leave was necessary is enough. They can’t ask for details about your medical condition, and if getting documentation would put an unreasonable financial burden on you, they can’t push that cost onto you.¹ Any health or safety information you provide has to be kept confidential as a medical record, which matters especially for safe leave situations where disclosure could put someone at risk.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Your employer can’t penalize you for requesting or using paid sick leave, and can’t require you to find someone to cover your shift as a condition of taking it.¹ Firing you, cutting your hours, rearranging your schedule, or writing you up because you took lawful sick leave all count as retaliation.

If you think your employer retaliated, you can file a complaint with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Keep your own records of leave requests, the employer’s responses, and any changes to your schedule or job status that followed. Those records matter if a dispute goes forward.

What Your Employer Must Tell You

At the time of hire, your employer has to give you written notice explaining your right to paid sick leave, how much you can earn, how the statute allows you to use it, and the fact that retaliation is prohibited. That notice can come through an employee handbook if the handbook covers everything required. Your pay stub or earnings statement must also show sick leave used during the accrual year and your current balance.²

Leaving a Job and Coming Back

Employers are not required to pay out accrued, unused sick leave when you separate from employment.¹ If your employer voluntarily offers a cash-out at termination and you accept it, that satisfies their obligation.²

If the same employer rehires you within six months, your previously accrued and unused sick leave has to be reinstated immediately. The same applies when a new company takes over your employer’s business and keeps you on staff. Your accrued leave transfers to the successor employer.³ Reinstatement doesn’t apply if you already accepted a voluntary cash-out when you originally left.

1
Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Minimum Wage And Paid Sick Leave Frequently Asked Questions
2
Alaska State Government. Questions And Responses Regarding Paid Sick Leave Proposed Regulations
3
FindLaw. Alaska Statutes Title 23 – Section 23.10.066
4
Alaska State Legislature. HB 161 – Alaska Paid Sick Leave