AbsentEase
Alaska sick leave law & call-off rules
Alaska's Ballot Measure 1 brought paid sick leave to every employer in the state on July 1, 2025 — a two-person shop and a 200-person operation differ only in the annual cap. As a voter initiative, the legislature couldn't repeal it for two years, so unlike Missouri's, this one stuck. Add mandatory carryover, tight documentation limits, and a 3-working-day final-paycheck rule, and Alaska employers have a new compliance baseline. Here is what applies in 2026.
Alaska at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | Yes — every employer size; 1 per 30; caps 40h (<15 employees) / 56h (15+) |
|---|---|
| Carryover | Mandatory, uncapped balance — no forced year-end cash-out |
| Attendance points on sick time | Barred — penalizing covered use is prohibited retaliation |
| Doctor's notes | Only beyond 3 consecutive workdays; the illness itself can't be asked about |
| Employment relationship | At-will — but Alaska implies good faith and fair dealing in every employment relationship |
| PTO payout at termination | Only if policy or contract promises it; sick balance reinstates on rehire within 6 months |
| Final paycheck deadline | Fired: within 3 working days · Quit: next payday at least 3 days after notice |
Is paid sick leave required in Alaska?
Yes, at every employer size. Under AS 23.10.066–.069, employees accrue 1 hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked — overtime hours count, and exempt salaried staff are credited at 40 hours a week. Employers with fewer than 15 employees may cap accrual and use at 40 hours per year; 15 or more, 56 hours. Part-timers are covered; the exemptions are narrow (young part-time minors, some seasonal camp staff, CBA waivers, and workers already outside Alaska's wage-and-hour act). No municipality adds its own layer.
How Alaska's sick leave law works
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked — all hours count, including overtime; exempt staff credited at 40/week |
|---|---|
| Caps | 40 hours/year under 15 employees · 56 hours at 15+ |
| Carryover | Mandatory for all unused time — balances can exceed the annual cap, and year-end forced cash-outs aren't allowed (voluntary, employee-requested cash-out is) |
| Covered uses | Own or family illness, injury, and medical care, plus safe leave for domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking |
| Doctor's notes | Only when an absence extends beyond 3 consecutive workdays; a professional's note that leave was necessary suffices — asking the nature of the illness is barred |
| Shift coverage | Employees can't be required to find their own replacement |
The anti-retaliation rule: denying use, penalizing, or retaliating for requesting or using sick leave is prohibited — which reaches no-fault points policies that assess occurrences for covered absences. The written rights notice every employer owed at hire (or within 30 days of July 1, 2025) must state the prohibition itself.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Alaska
Alaska is at-will with a twist found almost nowhere else: its courts imply a covenant of good faith and fair dealing in every employment relationship, which makes pretexty or inconsistently applied attendance terminations more litigable than in a typical at-will state. Layer the new sick-leave law on top — no small-employer exemption, points barred for covered use, notes off-limits until day four — and the safe pattern is the familiar one, executed cleanly: written policy, one call-off channel, verbatim time-stamped records, and classification before discipline. Wage and sick-leave complaints go to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and the good-faith covenant means even a lawful termination benefits from a paper trail showing it was even-handed. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system builds that trail automatically.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Within 3 working days after termination (excluding the termination day, weekends, holidays); late payment penalties run up to 90 working days of wages | AS 23.05.140 |
| Employee quits | Next regular payday that falls at least 3 days after the employer received notice | AS 23.05.140 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Payable only if promised by policy or contract | Policy/contract law |
| Unused sick leave | No payout — balance must be reinstated on rehire within 6 months | AS 23.10.066–.069 |
The 90-working-day penalty clock makes Alaska's 3-day rule expensive to miss — put final pay on the termination checklist, not the payroll calendar. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Alaska employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paid sick leave | Yes — paid | Every employer size, per the mechanics above |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Time off with pay unless the employee has 2 consecutive off-duty hours while polls are open (AS 15.56.100) |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | No threats, coercion, or job loss; violations support civil damages and reinstatement |
| Meal & rest breaks | No | Adults have no break entitlement; minors get 30 minutes on 5+ hour shifts |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Alaska National Guard protections |
The Alaska employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be state-protected sick time or FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.