Alaska minimum wage 2026: $14.00 an hour and the paycheck it pays

$14.00 an hour, in force since July 1, 2026. That is $6.75 above the federal floor of $7.25, which has not moved since July 24, 2009, and makes Alaska one of 2 states tied at 20th of the 50 states and DC. The rate is set by a voter-approved ballot measure. It rises to $15.00 on July 1, 2027.

At $14.00 and 40 hours a week, gross pay is $560 a week, $2,427 a month and $29,120 a year. A single filer with no other deductions takes home about $489 a week, $978 every two weeks, $2,119 a month or $25,432 a year. Social Security takes $1,805 a year and Medicare $422. Alaska has no state income tax to subtract, so the overall rate is 12.7%.

Before. A minimum wage is a floor on gross pay — the figure your employer must pay for each hour worked, calculated before any withholding. Payroll taxes come out afterwards, so what lands in your account is always less than $14.00 an hour. In Alaska the gap on a full 40-hour week is $71, taking $560 gross down to about $489 net.

Alaska does not allow a tip credit. Tipped employees must be paid the full $14.00 minimum wage in direct cash wages, and tips are on top of that rather than counted towards the floor. That is the rule in a small group of states; most of the country lets employers pay a lower cash wage and count tips to make up the difference. Tips are still taxable wages reported through payroll, and for 2026 up to $25,000 of qualified tips is deductible on your federal return.

Where a city, county or region carries a higher rate, that rate governs for work done there. A wage floor can be raised above the state figure but never lowered below it. No Alaska city currently runs above the statewide $14.00, so that one figure applies across the state. Whatever the wage floor, the payroll tax on it works the same way everywhere in Alaska.

$14.00 makes Alaska one of 2 states tied at 20th of the 50 states and DC. 31 of the 50 states and DC pay above the federal $7.25; the other 20 sit exactly on it. The District of Columbia is highest at $18.40, then Washington at $17.13.

Start with your pay stub: multiply the hours worked by $14.00 and compare it with gross pay for the period, before deductions. Unpaid minimum wage is a wage claim, filed with the Alaska labor office under state law or with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which carries its own filing window. Deductions that push effective pay below the minimum — uniforms, tools, till shortages — are generally not allowed. Employers must display the federal minimum wage poster in the workplace.