Payroll and Benefits Guide United States – Alaska

Employer

Employer Payroll Contributions

Employee

Employee Payroll Contributions

Employee

Employee Income Tax

General

Payroll Cycle

Employees in Alaska are paid semi-monthly or monthly, with payments on dates stipulated in the employee contract.

13th Salary

There are no provisions in the law regarding 13th salaries.

General

In Alaska, the workweek is a maximum of 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day.

Employers are required to provide break periods of at least 30 minutes for minors between the ages of 14 to 17 who work 5 or more consecutive hours and continue to work. Employers are not required to give breaks for employees 18 and over.

Breaks over 20 minutes are unpaid, while breaks under 20 minutes are paid. This does not apply to meal or lunch breaks.

Overtime

Employers can make overtime mandatory for employees, except for certain minors. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) stipulates that if an employee works more than 40 hours in a working week, the employer must pay 150% of the regular salary rate for the extra hours worked as overtime.

Working Week

Monday-Friday

Annual Leave (vacation)

Alaska does not have any state laws that govern paid time off. However, it is common for employers to decide whether to offer paid or unpaid vacation leave.  This must comply with employment law and must be stipulated in the collective bargaining agreements.

Public Holidays

There are 12 public holidays in Alaska. Public holidays are not mandatory as paid days off, however, it is very common to allow workers to take federal holidays as paid days off.

Sick Days

It is common for an employer to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain family and medical reasons (maternity leave, serious illnesses, or if the employee needs to care for a spouse or child).

Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for at least one year, completed a minimum of 1,250 hours over the past year, and worked at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

FMLA eligible employees are entitled to:

• 12 working weeks of leave in any one year for a child’s birth and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.
• Leave for the adoption or foster care of a child and care for the newly placed child within one year of placement.
• Care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a severe health condition.
• Leave in the event of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job.
• Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty.”

Or

• 26 working weeks of leave during a single one-year period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

In addition to the FMLA and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Alaska has laws regarding maternity and paternity leave. Employers with more than 25 employees are required to provide up to 6 weeks of maternity leave for employees who do not have pregnancy-related complications or disabilities.

Employers are also required to provide up to 4 months for employees with disabilities related to pregnancy, childbirth, or other related conditions.

Maternity Leave

Maternity leave falls under the FMLA state law (see Sick Leave).

Paternity Leave

Paternity leave falls under the FMLA (see Sick Leave).

Parental Leave

Parental leave falls under the FMLA (see Sick Leave).

Other Leave

• Jury Duty: Alaska law requires employers (with 5 or more employees) to provide their full-time employees with job-protected paid time off from work to perform jury duty. Employees must provide a copy of the jury summons to the employer as evidence of requirement.
• Voting Leave: Employees who are registered to vote must be allowed to take necessary time off from work, up to three hours of unpaid leave, to vote in any municipal, county, state, federal primary, or general election. Employees must provide reasonable notice to their employers to take time off to vote before noon on the day before the election. Leave is paid if it occurs during the employee’s regular working hours. Employers must provide unpaid leave for employees who are serving as part-time voting machine technicians.
• In addition to the federal law USERRA, Alaska law provides protection against discrimination for members of U.S. armed forces, reserves, National Guard, commissioned corps of the public health service, and any other category of persons designated by the president in a time of war or emergency.  Upon an employee’s return from leave, reemployment in a former or a similar position regarding seniority, status, pay, and other employment benefits may be made available by the employer.

Termination Process

Except in mass dismissals or as provided for in an employment contract or a collective bargaining agreement, U.S. law does not impose a formal notice period to terminate an individual employment relationship, and employment is stipulated “at will.”

This means that either the employer or the employee may end the employment relationship without giving either notice or reason, provided it is not illegal, notable discrimination on the grounds of a category protected by law, etc., and as per the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

Notice Period

In Alaska, most employees are employed “at-will,” and either party can terminate the employment relationship without notice. In Alaska, payout of unused vacation time is not required by law. However, employers will generally pay an employee for unused vacation days, provided the employee gives some advanced notice of resignation.

In mass dismissal cases the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) must be followed, and employers must give 60 days’ notice to impacted employees.

Severance Pay

Except as otherwise provided in an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, employers are not required to pay severance. Many employers choose to offer severance based on the employee’s length of employment.

If the employer terminates the contract, the final payment must be made to the employee within three working days after termination. Whereas if the employee terminates the contract, the employer will make the final payment according to the employees’ contract, usually the next regular payday.

VISA

General

Alaska has no state tax rate but local sales tax rates of between 0% and 7.85%.