Alaska Ballot Measure 1, Minimum Wage Increase and Paid Sick Leave Initiative (2024)

Alaska Ballot Measure 1
Election date November 5, 2024
Topic Minimum wage
Status a Approved
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

Alaska Ballot Measure 1, the Minimum Wage Increase and Paid Sick Leave Initiative, was on the ballot in Alaska as an indirect initiated state statute on November 5, 2024. The ballot measure was approved.

A "yes" vote supported:  increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by July 1, 2027;  providing employees the ability to accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employers have 15 employees or more;  providing employees the ability to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if their employers have under 15 employees; and  prohibiting employers taking adverse action against employees who refuse to attend employer-sponsored meetings regarding religious or political matters.

A "no" vote opposed:  increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by July 1, 2027;  providing employees the ability to accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employers have 15 employees or more;  providing employees the ability to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if their employers have under 15 employees; and  prohibiting employers taking adverse action against employees who refuse to attend employer-sponsored meetings regarding religious or political matters.

Election results

See also: Results for minimum wage and labor-related ballot measures, 2024

Alaska Ballot Measure 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		183,744	57.98%
No		133,162	42.02%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Overview

What did this amendment do regarding the minimum wage and paid sick leave in Alaska?

See also: Measure design

This initiative is designed to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by July 1, 2027. It also allows employees to accrue sick leave based on the size of their employer’s workforce—employees can earn up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employer has 15 or more employees, and up to 40 hours if their employer has fewer than 15 employees. Additionally, the initiative prohibits employers from taking adverse action against employees who choose not to attend employer-sponsored meetings on religious or political matters.

What was the status of minimum wage in Alaska?

See also: Minimum wage in Alaska

As of November 2024, the minimum wage in Alaska was $11.73 an hour. The minimum wage was increased by $0.88 from 2023 to 2024, with the minimum wage in 2023 being $10.85.

In 2014, Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 3 by 69.4%-30.7%, which increased the minimum wage from $7.75 per hour to $9.75 over three years. After three years, the minimum wage was to be adjusted based on inflation or to remain $1 higher than the federal minimum wage, whichever amount was greater.

Alaska was also the first state to adopt a minimum wage higher than that at the federal level. Furthermore, it maintained the highest minimum wage rate for more than 30 years after achieving statehood in 1959.

How many minimum wage ballot measures had been approved in the U.S. at the time of the election?

See also: Minimum wage ballot measures

From 1996 to 2022, there were 28 minimum wage increase measures on the ballot. Voters approved 26 (92.86%) and rejected two (7.14%). The last states to approve minimum wage measures were Nebraska and Nevada in November 2022. The last time that voters rejected a minimum wage increase measure was in 1996, when measures were defeated in Missouri and Montana.

Measure design

Click on the arrows (▼) below for summaries of the different provisions of the initiative.

Minimum wage: increases hourly minimum wage

Under this initiative, the hourly minimum wage was designed to increase to:

• $13.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2025;
• $14.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2026;
• $15.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2027.
• After this, the minimum wage would be adjusted annually for inflation. The adjustment would be calculated each September 30th by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, for the proceeding calendar year, and by using the 100% rate of inflation based on the Consumer Price index for all urban consumers for the Anchorage metropolitan area and compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and United States Department of Labor. The adjusted minimum wage would be rounded up to the nearest ten cents. The adjusted minimum hourly wage would apply to work performed for the next calendar year when it will be effective.

Under this initiative, tips or gratuities can’t be applied toward the payment of the minimum wage. Tip credit, as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, would not apply to the minimum wage established.

Sick leave: provides for paid sick leave

Under the amendment, employers must provide their employers paid sick leave as follows:

• Employees will accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employers have 15 employees or more, unless their employer sets a higher limit
• Employees will accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if their employers have under 15 employees, unless their employer sets a higher limit

Employees exempt from overtime requirements are assumed to work 40 hours a week for the purposes of sick leave accrual unless their normal work week is less than 40 hours. Paid sick leave can carry over into the following year, and will begin to accrue at the start of employment or July 1, 2025, whichever is later.

Employees that are transferred to a separate entity or location, but remain employed by the same employer, are entitled to all paid sick leave accrued at the prior entity or location. When there is a separation from employment, but the employee is rehired within six months of separation by the same employer, previously accrued or unused paid sick leave will be immediately reinstated. When a different employer takes 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 sick leave.

Paid sick leave can be utilized for an employee’s mental and physical illness, injury or health condition, medical diagnosis, care or treatment, preventative medical care. Paid sick leave can also be used for an employer to care for a family member, or can be used for absences necessarily related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including for medical or psychological attention, services from a victim’s aid organization, relocation or steps to secure an existing home, and legal services, including participation in any investigation or civil or criminal proceeding. For paid sick leave of more than three consecutive work days, an employer may require reasonable documentation. Paid sick leave can be used in smaller of hourly increments or the smallest increment an employers payroll system uses.

Under this initiative, an employer cannot retaliate, discriminate, or take adverse action against an employees who utilizes or attempts to utilize paid sick leave. An employer is not required to financially reimburse an employee following an employee’s termination or retirement for unused sick leave unless required by law. Employers must give written notice to employees that they are entitled to paid sick leave and the amount of paid sick leave thirty days after they are employed or thirty days after the measure is put into place, whichever is later.

Speech: provisions for employee's right to free speech

Under this initiative, an employer cannot take adverse action against an employee who refuses to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or listen to communications with the primary purpose of the meeting to communicate the employer’s opinion on religious or political matters. This does not prohibit an employer from communicating to the employee information that is required by law to communicate to the employee, or information directly related to the employee’s job or to the workplace. This also does not include institutions of higher education communicating to its employees coursework or an academic program, or any requirements that the employer’s executive personnel listen to communications about the employer’s business. This also does not include religious organizations from requiring employees to attend employer-sponsored meetings to participate in any communication with the primary purpose of communicating the employer’s religious beliefs or practices.

Text of measure

Ballot question

The ballot question was as follows:

“

An Act Increasing the Minimum Wage, Requiring Paid Sick Leave, and Prohibiting Mandatory Meetings about Religious or Political Issues This act would increase the minimum wage to $13 per hour in 2025, $14 per hour in 2026, and $15 per hour in 2027. The minimum wage would increase with inflation after that. The minimum wage would always be at least $2 above the federal minimum wage. This act would also require paid sick leave for many employees. Smaller employers would allow 40 or more hours of sick leave per year. Larger employers would allow 56 or more hours. Sick leave would carry over to the next year. This act would prohibit employers from making their employees attend meetings about religious or political issues. These issues include whether or not to join or support a religious, political, or labor organization. Some employers would be exempt and all employers could still communicate about issues required by law or related to the workplace. Should this initiative become law?

”

Full text

The full text of the ballot initiative is below:

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2024

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The lieutenant governor wrote the ballot language for this measure.

The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 9, and the FRE is 53. The word count for the ballot title is 156.

Support

Better Jobs For Alaska led the campaign in support of the initiative.

Supporters

Unions

• Alaska AFL-CIO

Organizations

• Sixteen Thirty Fund

Arguments

• Better Jobs for Alaska: "Alaskans know the value of hard work, but right now the odds are stacked against workers. The cost of living in Alaska keeps getting higher, but wages have not kept up. Thousands of Alaskans don’t get paid sick days, so working parents must choose between sending a sick kid to school or missing a day’s pay. Corporations can force workers to attend closed-door meetings about the bosses’ beliefs about religion, politics, or the economy, and they can fire workers who disagree. Alaskans deserve better jobs. The commonsense policies in this initiative will help give tens of thousands of Alaskans a fair shot."
• Joelle Hall, president of Alaska AFL-CIO: "This ballot initiative will bring a small amount of relief to people, so they can earn the right to stay home with a sick child, to stay home when they’re sick themselves, to not come to work at a restaurant and just serve you a meal when they’re sick."
• Tony Knowles, former Alaska governor: "It is widely accepted that employees who go to work when they are sick but can’t afford to lose their wages are not only hurting their own health but also are risking the well-being of the rest of the workforce. This was brought home to us during the Covid-19 epidemic. Businesses are not well served if there is an outbreak of disease which contaminates both their employees and their customers. Additionally, the use of sick leave days should be extended to enable a parent to provide care for a sick child rather than sending the child to school or a day care center that would endanger other kids as well as teachers. Ballot Measure No. 1 will make Alaska a better place to work and live. It will benefit workers and businesses. It will improve Alaska’s economy by attracting and keeping a pool of healthy, equitably-paid workers for our businesses."

Opposition

Opponents

Officials

• Mike Shower (R) -

Arguments

• Greg Sarber, board member of Alaska Gold Communications: "California passed a similar new minimum wage law that went into effect on April 1 of this year ... However, as a brief update, since California’s new minimum wage has gone into effect, over 10,000 low-wage workers have been fired from their jobs because their employers could not afford to pay the new higher wage or found cheaper alternatives like automation to replace workers. Instead of helping employees, the new law put them out of work and into the unemployment line."
• State Sen. Mike Shower (R): "Be careful what you vote for, Alaska. Ballot Measure 1 is not a simple minimum wage increase. And it will have harmful impacts on many Alaska businesses and therefore Alaskans employed by those businesses."
• Sarah Oates, president and CEO of Alaska CHARR; Kati Capozzi, president and CEO of Alaska Chamber; Jillian Simpson, president and CEO of Alaska Travel Industry Association; Rebecca Logan, CEO of Alaska Support Industry Alliance; Alicia Maltby, president and CEO of Associated Builders & Contractors of Alaska: "Ballot Measure 1 will force small businesses, already struggling to meet payroll, to absorb the cost of extended mandatory sick leave. This isn’t just a problem for the businesses. When employers are required to provide significantly more paid time off, those costs are passed on to consumers through higher prices on goods and services. With Alaska’s cost of living already soaring, do we really want to make everyday necessities even more expensive? The irony is that these rising costs hurt everyone, including the very workers Ballot Measure 1 claims to protect."

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Alaska ballot measures

The campaign finance information on this page reflects the most recent scheduled reports that Ballotpedia has processed, which covered through February 1, 2025.

Better Jobs For Alaska and Yes on 1 for Better Jobs were the campaigns registered to support the ballot measure. The campaigns collectively raised $2.61 million in total contributions.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$2,488,030.79	$153,751.54	$2,641,782.33	$2,353,006.82	$2,506,758.36
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$2,488,030.79	$153,751.54	$2,641,782.33	$2,353,006.82	$2,506,758.36

Support

The following table includes contribution and expenditure totals for the committees in support of the measure.

Committees in support of Ballot Measure 1
Committee	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Yes on 1 for Better Jobs	$1,665,340.73	$126,269.12	$1,791,609.85	$1,526,065.96	$1,652,335.08
Better Jobs for Alaska	$822,690.06	$27,482.42	$850,172.48	$826,940.86	$854,423.28
Total	$2,488,030.79	$153,751.54	$2,641,782.33	$2,353,006.82	$2,506,758.36

Donors

The following were the top donors to the committee.

Donor	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions
The Fairness Project	$1,305,000.00	$116,608.80	$1,421,608.80
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$820,000.00	$0.00	$820,000.00
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$100,000.00	$9,600.00	$109,600.00
Unite Here	$50,000.00	$0.00	$50,000.00
The Fairness Project	$0.00	$27,451.50	$27,451.50

Background

Minimum wage in Alaska

See also: Alaska Minimum Wage Increase, Ballot Measure 3 (2014)

As of 2024, Alaska's minimum wage was $11.73 an hour. In 2014, Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 3 by 69.4%-30.7%, which increased the minimum wage from $7.75 per hour to $9.75 over three years. The measure increased the state's minimum wage from $7.75 per hour to $8.75 beginning January 1, 2015. It increased again on January 1, 2016, to $9.75 per hour. From that point on, the minimum wage was slated to be adjusted based on inflation, or to remain $1 higher than the federal minimum wage, whichever amount was greater.

Alaska was the first state to adopt a minimum wage higher than that at the federal level. Furthermore, it maintained the highest minimum wage rate for more than 30 years after achieving statehood in 1959.

The chart below shows the minimum wage increases in Alaska between 1968 and 2024.

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• Minimum wage on the ballot
• Labor and unions on the ballot

Alaska

• Alaska ballot measures
• Alaska ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Initiative Text (2024)