00 HOUSE BILL NO. 161 01 "An Act relating to minimum paid sick leave requirements; and providing for an 02 effective date." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04  * Section 1. AS 23.10.066 is amended to read:  05 Sec. 23.10.066. Minimum paid sick leave benefit. Employers in the state 06 with 50 or more employees are required to provide their employees paid sick leave as 07 follows: 08 (1) [EMPLOYERS WITH 15 OR MORE EMPLOYEES SHALL 09 ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO ACCRUE] a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave 10 shall accrue for every 30 hours worked, but employees are not entitled to accrue or 11 use more than 56 hours of paid sick leave a [PER] year, unless their employer sets a 12 higher limit; 13 (2) [EMPLOYERS WITH FEWER THAN 15 EMPLOYEES SHALL 14 ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO ACCRUE A MINIMUM OF ONE HOUR OF PAID 01 SICK LEAVE FOR EVERY 30 HOURS WORKED, BUT EMPLOYEES ARE NOT 02 ENTITLED TO ACCRUE OR USE MORE THAN 40 HOURS OF PAID SICK 03 LEAVE PER YEAR, UNLESS THEIR EMPLOYER SETS A HIGHER LIMIT; 04 (3)] employees who are exempt from overtime requirements under 29 05 U.S.C. 213(a)(1) shall be assumed to work 40 hours in each work week for purposes 06 of paid sick leave accrual unless their normal work week is less than 40 hours, in 07 which case paid sick leave accrues based on [UPON] that normal work week; 08 (3) [(4)] paid sick leave shall carry over to the following year, but an 09 employer is not required to allow an employee to use more than the applicable 10 amounts of paid sick leave described in (1) [AND (2)] of this section a [PER] year; 11 (4) [(5)] paid sick leave as provided in this section shall begin to 12 accrue at the commencement of employment or July 1, 2025, whichever is later; an 13 employee shall be entitled to use paid sick leave as it is accrued; 14 (5) [(6)] any employer with a paid leave or paid time off policy [,] who 15 makes available an amount of paid leave that is sufficient to meet the requirements of 16 this section and that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions 17 as paid sick leave under this section [,] is not required to provide additional paid sick 18 leave; 19 (6) [(7)] an employee who is transferred to a separate entity or 20 location, but remains employed by the same employer, is entitled to all paid sick leave 21 accrued at the former [PRIOR] entity or location; when there is a separation from 22 employment, but the employee is rehired within six months after [OF] separation by 23 the same employer, previously accrued and unused paid sick leave shall be 24 immediately reinstated; when a different employer succeeds or takes the place of an 25 existing employer, all employees of the original employer who remain employed by 26 the successor employer are entitled to all accrued and unused paid sick leave;  27 (7) an employer may, at the employee's request, allow an employee  28 to exchange accrued sick leave for the cash value of the accrued sick leave. 29  * Sec. 2. AS 23.10.067 is amended to read: 30 Sec. 23.10.067. Use [UTILIZATION] of paid sick leave benefit. The paid 31 sick leave benefit required under AS 23.10.066 may be used [UTILIZED] as follows: 01 (1) employees shall be permitted to use paid sick leave for [:] 02 (A) an employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or health 03 condition; the employee's need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment; or the 04 employee's need for preventative medical care; 05 (B) care or assistance to the employee's family member relating 06 to the needs described in (A) of this paragraph; in this subparagraph, "family 07 member" means an immediate family member as defined in AS 39.52.960 08 [PURSUANT TO AS 39.52.960(11)]; a domestic partner; a foster child, legal 09 ward, or person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis; a foster parent, 10 adoptive parent, legal guardian, or [A] person who stood in loco parentis when 11 the employee was a minor child; or any other individual related by blood or 12 whose close association is the equivalent of a family relationship; or 13 (C) absences necessary due to domestic violence, sexual 14 assault, or stalking, if [PROVIDED] the leave is to allow the employee to 15 obtain, for the employee or a family member, [:] medical or psychological 16 attention; services from a victim's aid organization; relocation or steps to 17 secure an existing home; or legal services, including participation in any 18 investigation or civil or criminal proceeding; 19 (2) when the need for paid sick leave is foreseeable, an [THE] 20 employee who is not incapacitated shall make a good faith effort to provide notice to 21 the employer in advance of the use of paid sick leave and before the beginning of the  22 employee's workday for which the sick leave is used and make a reasonable effort 23 to schedule use of paid sick leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the 24 employer's operations; 25 (3) for paid sick leave of more than three consecutive workdays, an 26 employer may require reasonable documentation as follows, showing that the paid 27 sick leave has been used for a purpose covered by (1) of this section: 28 (A) [;] documentation signed by a health care professional 29 indicating that paid sick leave is or was necessary shall be considered 30 reasonable documentation for the purposes of (1)(A) or (B) of this section 31 [PURPOSES], but an employer may not require that the documentation explain 01 the nature or details of the illness or underlying health needs; 02 (B) [(A)] in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, or 03 stalking [,] under (1)(C) of this section, one of the following types of 04 documentation selected by the employee shall be considered reasonable 05 documentation: a police report; a written statement from a witness advocate 06 affirming services from a victim's aid organization; a court document 07 indicating relevant legal action; or a written, non-notarized statement from the 08 employee affirming that paid sick leave was taken for a qualifying purpose of 09 (1)(C) of this section; 10 (C) [(B)] unless otherwise required by law, an employer may 11 not require disclosure of the details of an employee's or an employee's family 12 member's health or safety information as a condition of providing paid sick 13 leave under AS 23.10.066 and must treat any health or safety information 14 regarding an employee or employee's family member as confidential medical 15 records; 16 (4) paid sick leave under AS 23.10.066 may be used in the smaller of 17 hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to 18 account for absences or use of other time; 19 (5) an employer may not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise 20 of, or the attempt to exercise, the right to paid sick leave under AS 23.10.066; an 21 employer may not [:] 22 (A) engage in retaliation or discrimination [,] or take any other 23 adverse action, against an employee who uses [UTILIZES], or attempts to use 24 [UTILIZE], their paid sick leave; 25 (B) require, as a condition of an employee's taking paid sick 26 leave under this section and AS 23.10.066, that the employee search for or find 27 a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee is using 28 paid sick leave; or 29 (C) use an absence control policy that counts paid sick leave 30 taken under AS 23.10.066 and this section as an absence that may lead to or 31 result in retaliation or any other adverse action.  01  * Sec. 3. AS 23.10.068(c) is amended to read: 02 (c) Employers shall give employees who are entitled to paid sick leave 03 written notice of the following at the commencement of employment or within 30 days 04 after [OF] this section's effective date, whichever is later: that beginning July 1, 2025, 05 employees are entitled to paid sick leave and the amount of paid sick leave, the terms 06 of its use guaranteed under AS 23.10.066 and 23.10.067, and that retaliation against 07 employees who request or use paid sick leave is prohibited. 08  * Sec. 4. AS 23.10.069 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 09 (d) Employment of seasonal workers is exempt from the requirements of 10 AS 23.10.066 - 23.10.068. In this subsection, "seasonal worker" means an employee 11 who is hired for a specific period related to peak business need, not to exceed six 12 months in each calendar year. 13  * Sec. 5. This Act takes effect July 1, 2025.