Alaska House votes to immediately eliminate sick leave for many workers in the state

The change, attached to a bill giving paid leave for new parents, would roll back a 2024 ballot measure approved by 58% of participating voters

The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau is seen on Apr. 24, 2026. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

Less than two years after Alaskans approved a ballot measure creating a mandatory sick leave law, the Alaska House of Representatives has voted to partially repeal it.

By a 22-18 vote on Saturday, the House approved an amendment that would cancel the law’s application for seasonal workers and for workers employed by a business with nine or fewer employees. The cancellation would take effect immediately, if the bill is signed into law.

Seasonal workers are defined as those who work at a specific job for less than six months per year.

All of the House’s Republican members voted for the amendment, including Reps. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, and Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, who are members of the House’s predominantly Democratic majority caucus. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, also voted for the amendment.

All of the House’s Democratic members — including Juneau’s two legislators — and its remaining independents opposed the amendment.

The amendment was to House Bill 193, which would create a mandatory paid leave program for new parents, starting in 2030. That bill advanced from the House on a 36-4 vote and was scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on Monday afternoon.

The four opposition votes all came from Republican lawmakers in the House’s minority caucus. 

It was not immediately clear whether the bill had the necessary support to pass the Senate before the end of the legislative session on Wednesday night. 

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, was largely identical to House Bill 161, a rollback measure that failed to advance in the Capitol this year despite significant lobbying efforts from business groups.

The state’s fishing industry, tourism industry, construction industry, the state chamber of commerce and several local chambers of commerce all have advocated HB 161. 

Speaking ahead of the vote, several Republican lawmakers said they were heeding that call and voting yes on the amendment to HB 193.

“It’s actually been my number one priority since I got back here this year,” said Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, speaking about the rollback.

Much of the desire for the rollback, Stapp explained, is because during its first year, seasonal employees saved their sick leave until the end of their term, then used it right before their departure, leaving employers short-staffed.

“That is creating a workforce crisis at the end of the season that is going to progressively get worse and worse and worse for our fishing industry, for our tourist industry, for our construction industry,” he said. 

Speaking on the floor ahead of the vote, Coulombe said she had hoped to cancel sick leave for all workers at businesses with fewer than 50 employees, but she received a legal memo indicating that doing so would be illegal because Alaska’s constitution prohibits the Legislature from repealing a ballot measure within its first two years, and such a large exemption would have covered roughly half of the state’s workers. 

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, said the sick leave law is “gutting the small businesses in my community.” 

“We need to be listening to our business community right now, that so many of them (came to us) and said, ‘We need help,’” she said.

Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, was among the lawmakers who urged the House to reject the amendment.

“I think it’s very problematic to substantially gut a ballot initiative less than two years after it was passed by voters,” he said.

Exempting seasonal workers means exempting multinational tourism and fishing businesses that operate in Alaska, he noted.

“Do we really need to exempt all the employees of massive multinational businesses like Holland America Princess?” he asked.

During the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, fish processing plants and cruise ships were hotspots of infection and disease. Outside the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism occasionally brings waves of influenza and norovirus to coastal communities.

“When we have a tourism-dependent economy, it is not in our interest to push sick people to come to work when they’re serving food, when they’re doing hospitality,” Fields said.

In 2024, Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, was one of the key organizers behind the sick leave ballot measure. Like her Democratic colleagues, she opposed the sick leave rollback but ultimately voted for the underlying bill even though it contained the rollback.

“The bill is a great bill, and you can just see the strong bipartisan support,” she said. “This whole building is an area of trying to figure out compromises and figuring out the ways where we can do good things that are supportive for families and can really address these issues about migration that our state has been facing. It’s not over for the bill or for paid sick (leave), so we’ll just see what happens on the Senate side.”

• James Brooks Cascade is a longtime Alaska reporter who lives in Juneau. He previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.