Alaska minimum wage rises to $14 on July 1

Alaska’s minimum wage will rise to $14 an hour on July 1.

Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, estimates the number of workers directly affected may be relatively small because many employers already pay above the legal minimum to recruit and keep staff. The pressure will show up in retail counters, food service, contracted support work and other seasonal positions, where hiring, hours and overtime coverage can move before wages do.

Alaska’s official wage table sets the state floor at $11.91 on Jan. 1, 2025, then $13 on July 1, 2025, $14 on July 1, 2026 and $15 on July 1, 2027. After that, annual cost-of-living increases begin in January 2028. Voters first approved inflation indexing in 2014, using the Anchorage Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, and the 2024 measure kept that structure while adding a new set of sick-leave rules.

Those rules reach beyond hourly pay. Alaska’s minimum wage applies to all hours worked in a pay period, whether workers are paid by time, piece, commission or another method. Salaried workers are covered as well, with exceptions, because state rules generally require salaried minimum pay to equal at least twice the hourly minimum on a 40-hour workweek basis. School bus drivers have a separate posted requirement: at least two times the Alaska minimum wage.

The ballot measure also requires paid sick leave, with workers earning one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 15 or more workers must provide up to 56 hours a year, while smaller employers must provide up to 40 hours. The broader labor picture reflects a tight workforce, with fewer people seeking work than in earlier years because of net outmigration, an aging population and immigration limits. State reporting in 2025 pointed to North Slope oil and gas projects as a source of construction job gains.