In the November 5, 2024 election, a majority of Alaskans appear to have voted in favor of Alaska Ballot Measure No. 1 to create a new statewide paid sick leave law that would become operative on July 1, 2025 (and increases to the state minimum wage that would become operative earlier). Although the results will not be certified by the State Review Board for several weeks, given the majority vote in favor of the initiative with nearly 70 percent of precincts reporting, it will likely be approved. The following highlights what employers should know about the anticipated law.

Covered Employers & Employees. The law will apply to all employers in Alaska, though different standards will apply to those with less than 15 employees.

The law defines who is a covered employee by explaining who is not covered, including certain apprentices, employees of non-profit organizations, employees engaged in agriculture, fishing, or domestic service, individuals under 18 years of age employed on a part-time basis not more than 30 hours in a week, and employees subject to the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

For employees covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement (CBA) entered into on or after July 1, 2024, the law’s requirements can be expressly waived in a CBA in clear and unambiguous terms. If a valid CBA waiver does not occur, however, there does not appear to be any CBA exemption. An employer signatory to a multiemployer CBA may fulfill its obligations under the law by making contributions to a multiemployer paid sick leave fund based on the hours each employee accrues under the law while working under the multiemployer CBA, if the fund enables employees to collect paid sick leave from the fund based on hours they have worked under the multiemployer CBA and for covered purposes.

Covered Uses & Family Members. Under the law, employees can use leave (for the purposes noted below) for themselves or to care for or assist a family member – generally defined as a child, parent, grandparent, sibling, spouse, domestic partner, aunt or uncle, any other individual related by blood to the employee or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship, or another person cohabiting with the employee in a conjugal relationship that is not a legal marriage.

Paid sick leave may be used for an employee’s or family member’s:

• Mental or physical illness, injury or health condition.
• Need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment.
• Need for preventative medical care.

Paid sick leave may also be used for absences necessary due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, provided the leave is to allow the employee to obtain for the employee or a family member:

• Medical or psychological attention.
• Services from a victim’s aid organization.
• Relocation or steps to secure an existing home.
• Legal services, including participation in any investigation or civil or criminal proceeding.

The law does not allow employers to impose a waiting period before employees can use paid sick leave; once an employee accrues leave, they can use it. Employees can use leave in the smaller of hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer’s payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other time.

Accrual, Carryover & Use Caps and Frontloading. Employers with a paid leave policy, such as a PTO policy, that make available an amount of paid leave sufficient to meet the law’s requirements that employees may use for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law requires need not provide additional paid sick leave.

Otherwise, when employment begins or on July 1, 2025 – whichever is later – employees must accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The law assumes that overtime-exempt executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees work a 40-hour-per-week schedule, but if their typical workweek involves fewer than 40 hours they accrue leave according to their normal schedule.

The law allows employers with less than 15 employees to cap annual accrual at 40 hours, and employers with 15 or more employees to cap annual accrual at 56 hours. The law mandates that all unused leave carry over from year to year (with no designated carryover cap). The law is silent concerning whether, and in what amount, employers can cap overall accrual. However, the law does allow employers with less than 15 employees to limit annual use to 40 hours, and employers with 15 or more employees to limit annual use to 56 hours.

The law does not expressly allow employers to frontload a specific number of paid sick leave hours annually in order to avoid carryover requirements.

Requesting & Documenting Leave. Generally, when the need to use paid sick leave is foreseeable, an employee must make a good-faith effort to provide notice to the employer in advance of the use of paid sick leave and make a reasonable effort to schedule use of paid sick leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations. The law does not address whether employers can ever require advance notice for unforeseeable absences.

If employees use paid sick leave on four or more consecutive workdays, an employer may require that the employee provide “reasonable” documentation to substantiate the need for leave, which includes documentation signed by a health care professional indicating that leave is or was necessary. In cases of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, one of the following types of documentation selected by the employee will be considered reasonable:

• A police report.
• A written statement from a witness advocate affirming services from a victim’s aid organization.
• A court document indicating relevant legal action.
• A written, non-notarized statement from the employee affirming that leave was taken for a covered reason.

An employer cannot require disclosure of the details of an employee’s or family member’s health or safety information as a condition for providing paid sick leave. Nor may an employer require that the documentation explain the nature or details of the illness or underlying health needs. An employer must treat any health or safety information regarding an employee or family member as confidential medical records.

Rate of Pay. The law does not address the rate at which employees must be paid, or when they must be paid, when using paid sick leave.

Transferred, Terminated & Rehired Employees. When employees transfer to a separate division, entity, or location of the employer, they retain all paid sick leave accrued and can use it in accordance with the law. Likewise, when a different employer succeeds or takes the place of an existing employer, all employees of the original employer who remain employed by the successor employer are entitled to all accrued and unused paid sick leave. When employment ends, employers need not pay out unused leave, but must reinstate that leave if they rehire the employee within six months of separation.

Employer Notice, Posting & Recordkeeping. When employment begins or within 30 days of the law’s effective date (July 31, 2025), whichever is later, employers must give employees written notice of the following:

• Beginning July 1, 2025, employees are entitled to paid sick leave;
• The amount of paid sick leave that is available;
• The terms of its use that are guaranteed under the law; and
• Prohibition of employer retaliation against employees who request or use paid sick leave.

The law does not explain how this notice must be provided to employees or whether the state intends to publish a model notice. Further, the law is silent about whether employers must (1) inform employees about available paid sick leave balances on paystubs, (2) have a written policy, or (3) maintain any records of an employee’s accrual and use of paid sick leave.

Prohibitions, Penalties & Damages. Under the law, employers cannot require, as a condition of taking paid sick leave, that employees search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which they use leave. An employer cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, the right to paid sick leave under the law. An absence control policy cannot count statutory paid sick leave as an absence that may lead to or result in retaliation or any other adverse action. An employer cannot engage in retaliation or discrimination, or take any other adverse action, against an employee who uses, or attempts to use, their paid sick leave. Finally, outside the CBA context, employers and employees cannot waive the law’s rights and remedies and any such waiver is void and unenforceable.

The law is silent regarding enforcement and whether employees have a private right of action other than noting that an employer found to violate the law is liable for an employee’s lost wages or damages as may be appropriate and allowable under state law to remedy the violation.

Next Steps. The ballot measure is one of the most barebones paid sick and safe time laws that we have seen across the country. As a result, it is entirely silent on important issues that employers often need to consider when developing paid leave policies and practices to meet their statutory obligations, particularly those needing to integrate the Alaska requirements with their current national policies. Accordingly, it will be up to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development to fill these gaps via formal rulemaking or informal FAQs in the next six or so months. Employers should monitor the department’s website and keep in contact with knowledgeable counsel to ensure they have not missed any relevant updates.