The Alaska Department of Labor set their minimum wage plan effective January 2003 to $7.15 per hour based on an 8 hour day and a 40 hour work week. They further established a voluntary flexible work hour plan that set a work day as a ten hour work day but not to exceed forty hour work week. Any working time over ten hours a day an employer must be the employee a premium overtime of 1 ½ times the minimum wage. This does not apply to employers who have fewer than four employees.
The current Federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour and throughout the years Alaska has kept ahead of the baseline requirements. Ten years ago the minimum wage in Alaska was $4.75 an hour and through the years the state of Alaska increased the minimum wage each year from 8% to as high as 27% to accommodate the Fair Labor Standards Act amendments passed by Congress and signed by the President.
Because the job opportunities in Alaska are somewhat unique, there are exceptions to the minimum wage as defined in the Alaska Statute 23.10.050 – 23.10.150. Individuals who are employed in agriculture, taking of aquatic life, and hand picking of shrimp are some examples of those not eligible for the minimum wage. However, if you are a school bus driver you will receive at least two times the Alaska minimum wage.
This statute also sets forth some exceptions to overtime payment for individuals employed in handling, packing, storing, pasteurizing, drying, preparing in their raw or natural state or canning of agricultural or horticultural commodities for market or in making cheese or butter or other dairy products; employed or engaged in small mining operations, where not more than 12 people are employed, as long as an individual does not exceed 12 hours a day or 56 hours a week during 14 work weeks in the aggregate in any calendar year during the mining season.
It is clear to see that the state of Alaska has defined their minimum wage plan in accordance with the uniqueness of job opportunities in their state and has set their standards higher than the Federal minimum wage required.
