Alaska overtime rules: the 8-hour day and the 40-hour week

Does Alaska require overtime after 8 hours a day? Yes: 1.5x for hours over 8 in a day and over 40 in a week, and daily overtime hours do not count toward the 40 (AS 23.10.060(b)). Employers with fewer than 4 employees are exempt.

The rule: Alaska Statutes 23.10.060(b)

"An employee is entitled to overtime compensation for hours worked in excess of eight hours a day. An employee is also entitled to overtime compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 hours a week; in determining whether an employee has worked more than 40 hours a week, the number of hours worked shall be determined without including hours that are worked in excess of eight hours in a day because the employee has or will be separately awarded overtime compensation based on those hours."

The rate is "one and one-half times the regular rate of pay." Alaska has no double-time rate.

How to count

1. For each day, hours over 8 are daily overtime.
2. Add up the remaining straight-time hours for the week. Anything over 40 is weekly overtime.
3. No hour is paid twice. The total always equals the larger of daily overtime or (total hours minus 40) (arithmetic).

Example: four 10-hour days and one 6-hour day, 46 hours. Daily overtime is 4 × 2 = 8 hours. Straight time is 38 hours, under 40, so no weekly overtime. Overtime owed: 8 hours. The federal rule alone would give 6.

Who is left out

Section 23.10.060(d) lists exemptions. The first is "an employee employed by an employer employing fewer than four employees in the regular course of business." Others include agriculture, seafarers, some small mining and logging operations and some small newspapers. Read the full list in the statute.

Rules from the regulations

• Salaried, non-exempt staff need a written contract stating daily and weekly straight-time hours. Without one, "the salary will be considered to be compensation for an eight-hour work day and 40-hour workweek" (8 AAC 15.100(a)(2)).
• Not allowed in Alaska: comp time off instead of overtime pay, "Belo" guaranteed-pay plans, and fixed-salary "fluctuating workweek" plans (8 AAC 15.100(d)).
• Breaks: time off of 20 minutes or more, fully relieved of duty, need not be counted as hours worked (8 AAC 15.100(c)). Alaska has no general meal or rest break requirement for adults that we found in these sections.

Use the overtime calculator, Alaska setting.

Not legal, tax or payroll advice. Statute read on October 27, 2026 from Justia's copy of the 2024 Alaska Statutes through the Internet Archive (dated July 25, 2025), because akleg.gov refused our connection. Regulation read on Cornell's Legal Information Institute.