In the November 2024 general election, Alaskans overwhelmingly voted in favor of Ballot Measure One, also known as “An Act Increasing the Minimum Wage, Requiring Paid Sick Leave, and Prohibiting Mandatory Meetings about Religious or Political Issues.”
More than 180,000 Alaskans—58% of voters—voted “yes” on the ballot measure, which will see three key changes to the employment landscape in 2025 and beyond: first, a three-year graduated increase in the state minimum wage, second, Alaska’s first-ever statewide paid sick leave mandate, and third, a change in law that will prohibit employers from requiring workers to attend meetings about religious, political, or labor issues.
Employers will need to comply with the new laws starting July 1, 2025. While some changes—like the minimum wage increases—will be straightforward to implement, others, like paid sick leave and the ban on mandatory political, religious, or anti-union meetings, will require many employers to reevaluate longstanding policies and practices.
If your business needs help understanding the changes or writing a policy compliant with the new law, don’t wait to contact us. Landye Bennett Blumstein’s team of experienced business lawyers have helped Alaska employers small and large keep pace with changes in employment law for more than 25 years.
Yearly Minimum Wage Increases
Alaska’s minimum wage has risen yearly since 2014, when voters passed a ballot measure containing two set increases: to $8.75 in 2015 and $9.75 in 2016, plus annual changes every subsequent year based on inflation. The State of Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced that minimum wage beginning January 1, 2025 is $11.91, only a moderate increase from the rate in 2024, which was $11.73 per hour.
Under Ballot Measure One, which repeals and replaces AS 23.10.065(a), the new minimum wage will be:
- $13 per hour beginning July 1, 2025
- $14 per hour beginning July 1, 2026
- $15 per hour beginning July 1, 2027
Starting January 1, 2028, the minimum wage will return to a yearly inflation-based increase, calculated using the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers in the Anchorage metro area.
The new law also requires that Alaska’s minimum wage stay at least $2 per hour higher than the federal minimum wage, which has been stagnant at $7.25 since 2009.
Employers should take care to evaluate the impact of this change across their workforce: changes in the minimum wage may affect exempt-employee classification, and pay under collective bargaining agreements or employment contracts that use the current minimum wage as a baseline.
Paid Sick Leave
As an initial matter, if an employer already has a paid leave policy that is more generous than what is required under the new law, additional leave days do not need to be granted. However, employers should review their policies to ensure they comply with the new law in all respects (including how leave that is characterized as sick leave is accrued and can be exercised).
Ballot Measure One will require nearly all employers to provide paid sick leave to employees starting July 1, 2025, with leave accruing at a minimum rate of one hour per 30 hours worked. For employees working a standard 40-hour week, this equates to one day of sick leave for every six weeks of work up to the caps discussed below.
The new law applies to all hourly employees, and while most employees exempt under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act (AS 23.10.055(a)) are also exempt from the paid leave requirement (including certain agricultural and fishing workers, along with employees of the federal government, the State of Alaska, and political subdivisions), employees who are exempt under the executive, administrative, or professional exemptions under AS 23.10.055(a)(9) are not exempt from the new paid leave law. Any overtime-exempt employees who are covered by the paid leave law will be assumed to work 40-hour weeks for accrual purposes unless their standard week is shorter.
Employers with 15 or more workers must allow employees to accrue or use 56 hours (that’s 7 standard 8-hour workdays) in a calendar year. That number is 40 hours (five days) for employers with 14 or fewer employees. Leave rolls over from one calendar year to the next, up to the maximum accrual amount.
Employees must be allowed to use leave as it accrues, for a range of eligible purposes, including:
- The employee’s mental or physical diagnosis, care, or treatment;
- The employee’s family member’s care; and
- Absences necessary due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, such as for medical or psychological treatment, victims’ aid services, relocation, or legal services.
For absences longer than three consecutive business days, employers may require limited documentation demonstrating that the leave was necessary.
These paid sick leave requirements may not be waived by agreement or as a condition of employment, except in a collective bargaining agreement that explicitly waives the requirements in clear and unambiguous terms.
Finally, employers do not need to reimburse or “cash out” sick leave under the new law when an employee leaves or is terminated. However, if a terminated employee is rehired by the same employer within six months, any earned but unused paid sick leave must be immediately reinstated.
Importantly, employers must give notice to employees of this paid sick leave benefit and how it operates. Notice must be given by June 1, 2025 for existing employees, or upon hire to any new employees hired after that date.
Employee Rights to Avoid Speech
Finally, Ballot Measure One prohibits employers from requiring workers to attend meetings or listen to communications about religious or political topics. Employers are also prohibited from retaliating against employees who refuse to attend such meetings.
The new law, codified at AS 23.10.490, defines “political matters” to mean matters relating to elections, political parties, candidates, proposed legislation or regulations, and the decision whether or not to join or support a political party, or political, civic, communal, fraternal, or labor organization. And “religious matters” means matters relating to religious affiliation and practice and the decision whether or not to join or support a religious organization or association.
The most obvious implication of this change is to prohibit “captive-audience meetings,” in which an employer requires workers to attend a presentation on the drawbacks or downsides of unionization, usually in response to an effort to organize the workplace. Captive-audience meetings have historically been permitted by the NLRB, except for immediately before a union election. Nine states, including California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, have enacted state-level bans.
Notably, in November 2024, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in Amazon.com Services LLC, 373 NLRB No. 136 (Nov. 13, 2024) banning captive-audience meetings. This ruling overturned longstanding precedent permitting such meetings. While Ballot Measure One’s prohibition on captive audience meetings will not go into effect until July 1, 2025, the NLRB’s recent ruling takes immediate effect. While NLRB rulings are notoriously susceptible to reversal and course-correction with changing presidential administrations, Ballot Measure One enshrines this change in state law, so employers should prepare to comply.
