PAID SICK LEAVE EXEMPTION

HB0161a -1- HB 161
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HOUSE BILL NO. 161

IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA

THIRTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE - SECOND SESSION

BY REPRESENTATIVES RUFFRIDGE, Coulombe, Kopp, Saddler, Elam, Bynum, Allard, Costello,
Underwood, Vance, Tomaszewski, McCabe, Prax, St. Clair, Schwanke, Moore

Introduced: 3/28/25
Referred: Labor and Commerce, Finance

A BILL

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED

"An Act relating to minimum paid sick leave requirements; and providing for an 1
effective date." 2
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 3
* Section 1. AS 23.10.066 is amended to read: 4
Sec. 23.10.066. Minimum paid sick leave benefit. Employers in the state 5
with 50 or more employees are required to provide their employees paid sick leave as 6
follows: 7
(1) [EMPLOYERS WITH 15 OR MORE EMPLOYEES SHALL 8
ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO ACCRUE] a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave 9
shall accrue for every 30 hours worked, but employees are not entitled to accrue or 10
use more than 56 hours of paid sick leave a [PER] year, unless their employer sets a 11
higher limit; 12
(2) [EMPLOYERS WITH FEWER THAN 15 EMPLOYEES SHALL 13
ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO ACCRUE A MINIMUM OF ONE HOUR OF PAID 14
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HB 161 -2- HB0161a
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SICK LEAVE FOR EVERY 30 HOURS WORKED, BUT EMPLOYEES ARE NOT 1
ENTITLED TO ACCRUE OR USE MORE THAN 40 HOURS OF PAID SICK 2
LEAVE PER YEAR, UNLESS THEIR EMPLOYER SETS A HIGHER LIMIT; 3
(3)] employees who are exempt from overtime requirements under 29 4
U.S.C. 213(a)(1) shall be assumed to work 40 hours in each work week for purposes 5
of paid sick leave accrual unless their normal work week is less than 40 hours, in 6
which case paid sick leave accrues based on [UPON] that normal work week; 7
(3) [(4)] paid sick leave shall carry over to the following year, but an 8
employer is not required to allow an employee to use more than the applicable 9
amounts of paid sick leave described in (1) [AND (2)] of this section a [PER] year; 10
(4) [(5)] paid sick leave as provided in this section shall begin to 11
accrue at the commencement of employment or July 1, 2025, whichever is later; an 12
employee shall be entitled to use paid sick leave as it is accrued; 13
(5) [(6)] any employer with a paid leave or paid time off policy [,] who 14
makes available an amount of paid leave that is sufficient to meet the requirements of 15
this section and that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions 16
as paid sick leave under this section [,] is not required to provide additional paid sick 17
leave; 18
(6) [(7)] an employee who is transferred to a separate entity or 19
location, but remains employed by the same employer, is entitled to all paid sick leave 20
accrued at the former [PRIOR] entity or location; when there is a separation from 21
employment, but the employee is rehired within six months after [OF] separation by 22
the same employer, previously accrued and unused paid sick leave shall be 23
immediately reinstated; when a different employer succeeds or takes the place of an 24
existing employer, all employees of the original employer who remain employed by 25
the successor employer are entitled to all accrued and unused paid sick leave; 26
(7) an employer may, at the employee's request, allow an employee 27
to exchange accrued sick leave for the cash value of the accrued sick leave. 28
* Sec. 2. AS 23.10.067 is amended to read: 29
Sec. 23.10.067. Use [UTILIZATION] of paid sick leave benefit. The paid 30
sick leave benefit required under AS 23.10.066 may be used [UTILIZED] as follows: 31
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(1) employees shall be permitted to use paid sick leave for [:] 1
(A) an employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or health 2
condition; the employee's need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment; or the 3
employee's need for preventative medical care; 4
(B) care or assistance to the employee's family member relating 5
to the needs described in (A) of this paragraph; in this subparagraph, "family 6
member" means an immediate family member as defined in AS 39.52.960 7
[PURSUANT TO AS 39.52.960(11)]; a domestic partner; a foster child, legal 8
ward, or person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis; a foster parent, 9
adoptive parent, legal guardian, or [A] person who stood in loco parentis when 10
the employee was a minor child; or any other individual related by blood or 11
whose close association is the equivalent of a family relationship; or 12
(C) absences necessary due to domestic violence, sexual 13
assault, or stalking, if [PROVIDED] the leave is to allow the employee to 14
obtain, for the employee or a family member, [:] medical or psychological 15
attention; services from a victim's aid organization; relocation or steps to 16
secure an existing home; or legal services, including participation in any 17
investigation or civil or criminal proceeding; 18
(2) when the need for paid sick leave is foreseeable, an [THE] 19
employee who is not incapacitated shall make a good faith effort to provide notice to 20
the employer in advance of the use of paid sick leave and before the beginning of the 21
employee's workday for which the sick leave is used and make a reasonable effort 22
to schedule use of paid sick leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the 23
employer's operations; 24
(3) for paid sick leave of more than three consecutive workdays, an 25
employer may require reasonable documentation as follows, showing that the paid 26
sick leave has been used for a purpose covered by (1) of this section: 27
(A) [;] documentation signed by a health care professional 28
indicating that paid sick leave is or was necessary shall be considered 29
reasonable documentation for the purposes of (1)(A) or (B) of this section 30
[PURPOSES], but an employer may not require that the documentation explain 31
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the nature or details of the illness or underlying health needs; 1
(B) [(A)] in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, or 2
stalking [,] under (1)(C) of this section, one of the following types of 3
documentation selected by the employee shall be considered reasonable 4
documentation: a police report; a written statement from a witness advocate 5
affirming services from a victim's aid organization; a court document 6
indicating relevant legal action; or a written, non-notarized statement from the 7
employee affirming that paid sick leave was taken for a qualifying purpose of 8
(1)(C) of this section; 9
(C) [(B)] unless otherwise required by law, an employer may 10
not require disclosure of the details of an employee's or an employee's family 11
member's health or safety information as a condition of providing paid sick 12
leave under AS 23.10.066 and must treat any health or safety information 13
regarding an employee or employee's family member as confidential medical 14
records; 15
(4) paid sick leave under AS 23.10.066 may be used in the smaller of 16
hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to 17
account for absences or use of other time; 18
(5) an employer may not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise 19
of, or the attempt to exercise, the right to paid sick leave under AS 23.10.066; an 20
employer may not [:] 21
(A) engage in retaliation or discrimination [,] or take any other 22
adverse action, against an employee who uses [UTILIZES], or attempts to use 23
[UTILIZE], their paid sick leave; 24
(B) require, as a condition of an employee's taking paid sick 25
leave under this section and AS 23.10.066, that the employee search for or find 26
a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee is using 27
paid sick leave; or 28
(C) use an absence control policy that counts paid sick leave 29
taken under AS 23.10.066 and this section as an absence that may lead to or 30
result in retaliation or any other adverse action. 31
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HB0161a -5- HB 161
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* Sec. 3. AS 23.10.068(c) is amended to read: 1
(c) Employers shall give employees who are entitled to paid sick leave 2
written notice of the following at the commencement of employment or within 30 days 3
after [OF] this section's effective date, whichever is later: that beginning July 1, 2025, 4
employees are entitled to paid sick leave and the amount of paid sick leave, the terms 5
of its use guaranteed under AS 23.10.066 and 23.10.067, and that retaliation against 6
employees who request or use paid sick leave is prohibited. 7
* Sec. 4. AS 23.10.069 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 8
(d) Employment of seasonal workers is exempt from the requirements of 9
AS 23.10.066 - 23.10.068. In this subsection, "seasonal worker" means an employee 10
who is hired for a specific period related to peak business need, not to exceed six 11
months in each calendar year. 12
* Sec. 5. This Act takes effect July 1, 2025. 13