Minimum wage rising to $9.80

Minimum wage earners in Alaska are getting another pay boost in 2017, going from $9.75 to $9.80 an hour, which adds up to an additional $2 a week for those with a 40-hour a week work schedule.

The increase will affect roughly 18,000 workers who make $9.75 or less, some of whom earn less because of exemptions to state minimum wage laws, said Dan Robinson, chief of research and analysis for the labor department.

Alaska voters approved a ballot initiative in 2014 that boosted the minimum hourly wage from $8.75 to $9.75 in 2016, and requires the Alaska minimum wage to be adjusted annually for inflation.

“Alaskan workers deserve a fair process to ensure Alaska’s minimum wage keeps up with inflation, and this is the first year the new law requires it to be adjusted,” said

Labor Commissioner Heidi Drygas. “This modest increase will protect low wag workers and their families against inflation over time.”

Alaska Statute 23.10.065(a) requires the Alaska minimum wage to be adjusted using the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers in the anchorage metropolitan area for the preceding calendar year.  The Anchorage CPI-U increased 0.5 percent in 2015, rising from 215.805 to 216.909, and as a result the minimum wage will rise to $9.80 on Jan. 1, Drygas said.

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The Alaska minimum wage applies to all hours worked in a pay period regardless of how the employee is paid; whether by time, piece, commission or otherwise. All actual hours worked in a pay period multiplied by the Alaska minimum wage is the very least an employee can be compensated by an employer. Tips do not count toward the minimum wage, labor officials said.

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