Alaska Minimum Wage: Rate, Schedule and Tip Rules

The worst payroll mistake I have made was small. It was a few cents an hour, on four people, for six weeks. A minimum wage had gone up on a date nobody on my side was watching, and an employee did the arithmetic before I did.

Alaska makes that mistake easy, for one reason that has nothing to do with the law being complicated. The rate does not move on January 1 the way most of the country does. It moves on July 1, in the middle of a quarter, during the season when a lot of Alaska employers are at their highest headcount of the year.

This page does one job: the number you owe, the number coming next, and the handful of exceptions that are real. The wider picture of Alaska employment law sits in the Alaska HR compliance guide, which covers overtime, sick leave and termination in detail.

The Rate Right Now

Alaska’s minimum wage is $14.00 an hour, and it took effect on July 1, 2026. Before that date the rate was $13.00, which had applied since July 1, 2025. The Wage and Hour Administration at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development publishes the figure and administers the law.

The rate applies to all hours worked in a pay period, whether the work is measured by time, piece, commission or anything else. That phrasing comes straight from Alaska Statute 23.10.065. Multiply total hours by $14.00 and the result is the floor for that period.

Two other numbers move with the wage, which is the part employers usually miss. School bus drivers must receive at least twice the Alaska minimum wage, and the salary floor for exempt executive, administrative and professional employees is twice the minimum wage for the first 40 hours.

The Next Scheduled Increase

The next increase is $15.00 an hour on July 1, 2027, a one dollar step up. After that, the fixed schedule ends and annual inflation adjustments begin on January 1, 2028. All of it traces back to Ballot Measure 1, which Alaska voters approved in November 2024.

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development set out the full sequence when the first step landed, in its June 2025 minimum wage announcement. Nothing since has changed the schedule, and each step has arrived on the stated date.

From 2028 the department calculates the new rate each September 30 for the preceding January to December calendar year. It uses the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers for the Anchorage metropolitan area and rounds the result up to the nearest ten cents.

That means the announcement lands roughly three months before the change, which is a comfortable amount of notice compared with most states. Put a calendar reminder on October 1 each year from 2027 onward and you will never be surprised.

Tipped Employees: No Tip Credit

Alaska allows no tip credit. A tipped employee receives the full $14.00 an hour in cash wages from the employer, and tips sit entirely on top of that. There is no tipped minimum cash wage to calculate here, because Alaska does not have one.

The rule is explicit in statute. Alaska Statute 23.10.065(a), reproduced in the department’s Wage and Hour Pamphlet 100, says an employer may not apply tips or gratuities bestowed on employees as a credit toward payment of the minimum hourly wage, and that the federal tip credit does not apply to the Alaska rate.

For a restaurant, bar, hotel or salon operator moving into Alaska from a tip credit state, this is the single biggest line item difference. Your budgeted labor cost per server hour is $14.00, not a reduced cash wage topped up to the minimum by tips.

City and Borough Rates

No Alaska city or borough sets its own minimum wage. The Wage and Hour Administration publishes one statewide rate schedule, and it applies everywhere in the state. Whatever you pay in Anchorage, you pay in Bethel.

This is one of the ways Alaska is genuinely simpler than the West Coast states it is often grouped with. There is no municipal ordinance layer to check before you post a job or run payroll for a new location.

If you employ people in more than one state, the local rate question is still live outside Alaska. Several states carry city and county ordinances well above their own state floor. The state by state minimum wage overview is the place to check those.

Industry Carve-Outs and Exemptions

Alaska has no fast food wage, no healthcare wage and no separate rate for any industry. What it has instead is a long list of workers who fall outside the minimum wage entirely, and a second list of workers who are covered by the wage but exempt from overtime.

The full lists sit in Alaska Statutes 23.10.055 and 23.10.060 and are summarized on the department’s minimum wage and overtime page. The ones a small employer actually runs into are below.

Two of these deserve a warning. The hospital and small employer entries are overtime exemptions, not wage exemptions, so those workers still receive $14.00 an hour. Treating an overtime exemption as permission to pay below the wage floor is the most common error I see.

Classification generally is where small employers lose money in back pay. If you are unsure whether a salaried role really clears the duties test, work through it properly using the exempt versus non-exempt classification guide before the next payroll run.

Youth, Learner and Training Wages

Alaska has no youth wage and no training wage that you can simply elect to use. There is no 90 day starter rate under state law, and no lower figure for a new hire learning the job.

One narrow carve-out exists. An individual under 18 employed on a part-time basis for not more than 30 hours in any week is exempt from the Alaska minimum wage and overtime under the Wage and Hour Act. The exemption is defined by hours, so a teenager scheduled for 32 hours in a week is fully covered at $14.00.

Removing the state floor does not remove federal coverage. A business covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act still answers to the federal rules for that worker, and the federal minimum wage reference explains how the federal youth provisions work.

Alaska Statute 23.10.070 also lets the Commissioner of Labor authorize sub-minimum wages for apprentices, learners and residential summer camp staff employed for no more than 12 weeks. These are not self-service. Each one requires an application the department approves in advance, and the approval sets the rate.

The Poster Requirement

Every covered Alaska employer must post a summary of the wage and hour law in a conspicuous location at the workplace. That obligation comes from Alaska Statute 23.10.105, and the state supplies the poster free of charge on request.

The document is the Summary of Alaska Wage and Hour Act, published on the Wage and Hour posters page at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The current edition carries the $14.00 rate and instructs the employer to post it in a prominent place.

Alaska revises the poster when the rate changes, so the version on your wall is dated. A poster still showing $13.00 is evidence that your payroll was not reviewed on July 1, which is exactly the inference a wage claim investigator will draw.

The wage summary is one of several required Alaska postings, alongside the workers compensation notice and the safety and health poster. The Alaska compliance guide lists the full set with the agency behind each one.

How Alaska Sits Against the Federal Rate

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has not moved since July 2009. Alaska’s $14.00 is $6.75 above it, so the Alaska rate is what your payroll uses. When state and federal rates differ, the higher one applies.

Alaska also carries a statutory guardrail that most states do not. Alaska Statute 23.10.065(d) says that if the rate calculated under the inflation formula ever falls below two dollars over the federal minimum wage, the Alaska rate is set at two dollars over the federal figure instead.

At today’s federal rate that floor is $9.25, far below the scheduled Alaska figures, so it is currently dormant. It becomes relevant only if Congress raises the federal minimum wage substantially, and it means an Alaska employer would see the state rate jump alongside any large federal increase.

For the national picture, including which states index to inflation and which sit at the federal figure, the minimum wage increase tracker covers every jurisdiction and their effective dates.

What to Do When the Rate Rises

On the day a rate rises you have three jobs: recalculate, notify, and replace the poster. None of them takes long, but all three have to happen before the first pay period that crosses the effective date, not after.

Recalculating is more than changing one field. Anyone sitting exactly at the old floor moves to the new one, and so does anyone whose pay is derived from it. Piece rate and commission staff need their effective hourly rate re-tested against the new figure for every pay period.

Notifying is a legal duty in Alaska, not a courtesy. Alaska Statute 23.05.160 requires written notice to each employee of the rate of pay at hire and notice of any change on the payday before the change takes effect. Doing it by email or with the paycheck both satisfy the statute.

Recordkeeping closes the loop. Alaska requires payroll information and records to be kept for at least three years at the place of employment, which is also the window a wage claim will reach back into. I built FirstHR so that employee records, pay rates and the paperwork trail live in one place rather than in a spreadsheet somebody forgot to update.

One practical habit is worth more than any checklist. Diary the increase dates the moment you read them, because Alaska’s July 1 timing falls outside every payroll calendar most owners keep. The payroll compliance overview covers the surrounding obligations that share those dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum wage in Alaska?

Alaska’s minimum wage is $14.00 an hour, effective July 1, 2026. It replaced the $13.00 rate that applied from July 1, 2025. The rate sits in Alaska Statute 23.10.065 and covers every hour worked in a pay period regardless of whether pay is measured by time, piece or commission.

Does Alaska allow a tip credit for servers and bartenders?

No. Alaska Statute 23.10.065(a) forbids applying tips or gratuities as a credit toward the minimum hourly wage, and states that the federal tip credit does not apply here. Servers, bartenders and other tipped staff receive $14.00 an hour in cash wages, with tips entirely additional.

When does the Alaska minimum wage go up again?

The next step is $15.00 an hour on July 1, 2027. From January 1, 2028 the rate adjusts for inflation each year, calculated on September 30 for the preceding calendar year using the Anchorage metropolitan area consumer price index and rounded up to the nearest ten cents.

Do any Alaska cities or boroughs set their own minimum wage?

No. Alaska runs a single statewide rate. Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and every other community use the same $14.00 figure, so there is no municipal ordinance layer to check before opening a second Alaska location.

Can I pay a teenager less than the Alaska minimum wage?

Alaska has no general youth or training wage. One narrow exemption covers workers under 18 employed part time for not more than 30 hours in any week, and it removes only the state floor, not federal coverage. Apprentice and learner rates require advance departmental approval.

What salary do I have to pay an exempt employee in Alaska?

The Alaska exempt salary floor is twice the minimum wage for the first 40 hours worked, which is $1,120 a week at the current rate and will be $1,200 a week from July 1, 2027. It is well above the federal threshold, and the duties test still has to be satisfied separately.

Do I have to post anything when the rate changes?

Yes. Alaska Statute 23.10.105 requires a commissioner-approved summary of the wage and hour law posted conspicuously at the workplace, and the state provides it free. Alaska Statute 23.05.160 separately requires written notice to each employee of any change to their rate of pay on the payday before the change.