Alaska Overtime Laws

Time-and-a-half after 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a workweek is the practical starting point for most covered, nonexempt employees.

Overtime is calculated by workweek, not by pay period. An employer cannot average a long week and a short week together to avoid overtime that was earned in the long week.

How this differs from federal law: Federal law generally looks only at hours over 40 in a workweek. Alaska can require overtime after a single workday exceeds eight hours, but the state overtime provision does not cover an employer with fewer than four employees.

Alaska's state overtime requirement does not apply to an employer with fewer than four employees, and the statute lists additional exemptions. Federal coverage can still produce overtime rights.

The general rule does not fit every worker or workplace. These points are especially important in Alaska:

• -An approved voluntary flexible work-hour plan can permit four 10-hour days before daily overtime begins.
• -Agriculture, certain small mining operations and several other occupations have specific state-law exemptions or alternative rules.
• -Daily and weekly overtime hours are coordinated so the same hour is not counted twice.

Under the FLSA, hours worked include time the employer requires or permits an employee to spend working. That can include required preparation, certain training or travel, and work performed before clocking in or after clocking out.

Paid vacation, holidays and sick leave usually are not hours actually worked for the federal 40-hour calculation. A contract, policy or state-specific rule can be more generous.

The workweek is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours. It does not have to run Monday through Sunday, but it cannot be changed from week to week to avoid overtime.

Being paid a salary does not automatically remove an employee's right to overtime.

Common executive, administrative and professional exemptions depend on the employee's real job duties and the applicable pay-basis requirements. A title such as "manager" does not settle the question.

State exemption tests can differ from federal tests. Employers should apply every law that covers the work rather than relying only on payroll method or title.

An employer may require advance approval before overtime is worked. Even so, covered work must be paid when the employer required it, allowed it, or knew or should have known it was happening.

The employer may address a violation of its scheduling policy separately, but it cannot accept compensable work and then erase the hours from payroll.