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Higher minimum wage, sick leave & employee rights: Alaska voters consider Ballot Measure 1

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Higher minimum wage, sick leave & employee rights: Alaska voters consider Ballot Measure 1


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A $15 minimum wage, small business sick leave requirements and ‘protecting workers’ constitutional rights’ are what ballot measure 1 supporters are asking November voters to say ‘yes’ to.

Measure 1 supporters argue that the process needs to be sped up to raise the current $11.73 minimum wage, after voters in 2014 approved adjusting the minimum wage annually for inflation, as a way to grow Alaska’s middle class. Those against ballot measure 1 said they feel pay and benefits should be left between employers and employees, and not be government-regulated.

AK Bark owner Mark Robokoff said he supports measure 1 because he said he believes it will help small business operators. The proposal would raise the state minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour by 2027. Measure 1 also comes with sick leave provisions.

“You know when you look at a huge segment of the Anchorage population have significantly more money in their pockets, that’s going to make a big difference to a store, small stores like me,” said Robokoff.

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Business with fewer than 15 employees would be allowed under measure 1 to accrue as many as 40 hours per year. Business with more than 15 employees would accrue as many as 56 hours of sick leave per year.

“Fair and decent,” said Robokoff, who has three employees. “Earn sick pay like a human, like a normal human being ought to. They’re going to feel better about their job. They’re going to stay longer.”

Patrick FitzGerald, part of a group of supporters behind Measure 1, said COVID proved to employees the value of having jobs with paid sick leave.

“Sick days are dependent on your agreement with your employment, but there is no guarantee that sick days have to be given to employees,” said FitzGerald. “We really don’t think that employees should have to go to work when they’re sick.”

FitzGerald also said initiative supporters considered proposing a $20-an-hour minimum wage at one time.

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“We thought $15 an hour for minimum wage would be something that would both increase and help the Alaskan economy and the earners, as well as to have small businesses be able to accommodate that growth,” FitzGerald said.

Anchorage small business owner John Weddleton said he does not support the measure and that businesses should be left alone, leaving potential employees to make their own decisions on where they work and how much they get paid.

“Employees can move from one business to the next,” said Weddleton. “They can increase their pays, increase skills. I mean, that’s a dynamic thing in our labor force. We’ve always seen that, and, you know, meddling in it, particularly detail of that sick leave is surprising, and it will cause problems.”

Weddleton said he doesn’t anticipate voting for the initiative in November and calls the sick pay provision “confusing” for employers.

“Two pages of that statute goes into the details of this, showing how complicated sick leave or paid time off is… so, I think for any business, it creates a lot of uncertainty,” said Weddleton.

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Weddleton, who’s also a former Anchorage Assembly member, said if measure 1 passes, he doesn’t see it crippling businesses although he said it will cause owners to shift costs. With his reservations, Weddleton said he expects the measure to pass in November.

“It has great populist appeal,” said Weddleton said.

There’s a part of measure 1 that would prohibit employers from mandating employees attend meetings regarding religious or political matters unrelated to work. The measure’s sponsors said they are unaware of this being an issue in the state and is seen as an added precaution given the partisan nature of politics, said Robokoff.



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Alaska

Murkowski, a vocal Trump critic, vows to work with him to advance Alaska interests

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Murkowski, a vocal Trump critic, vows to work with him to advance Alaska interests


Republican Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has long been an outspoken critic of President-elect Donald Trump.

She says she never voted for him. Not in 2016, not in 2020, and not this year.

After Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Murkowski said Trump should have resigned the presidency immediately. She was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack. Trump then vowed to campaign against Murkowski; still, she won reelection in 2022.

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Now, Murkowski says she will work with the Trump administration, setting aside their fraught history.

“At the end of the day, regardless of how a given president feels about me personally or politically, my job, my role is to make sure that Alaska stands to gain, and that’s what I intend to do,” Murkowski said Wednesday.

“I have been able to work with every single president, Republican and Democrat, to advance things that work in Alaska’s best interest. That’s part of my job,” said Murkowski, who met with Alaska news media in her Anchorage office. “You figure out areas that you can work together in. You figure out those areas where you need to push back in.”

Murkowski, like other Alaska politicians, has said that Trump’s policies could be more favorable to resource development projects in Alaska.

One area where she said she expected to push back on a Trump agenda was on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, the law championed by President Barack Obama that Trump tried unsuccessfully to repeal during his first term in office.

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“By then, there had been a growing acceptance and appreciation for how the ACA had allowed so many people who weren’t able to previously receive insurance be able to afford to have it,” said Murkowski.

She said “there may be areas” where she would be willing to consider changes to the law, but she was not open to a wholesale repeal of it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of Election Day that his caucus would seek to reform the Affordable Care Act if Trump is re-elected. Even congressional inaction during a Trump presidency could impact the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have signaled they may allow major subsidies approved during the Biden presidency to sunset. Those subsidies helped ACA enrollment nearly double in recent years.

Murkowski originally voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2009, then voted against its repeal in 2017.

Murkowski, who voted against the Biden Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, also said she would not support its wholesale repeal. Trump has vowed to repeal parts of the bill.

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“There are many aspects of the IRA that are legitimately issues that may be worthy of review. But it’s not unlike what we saw with the ACA, where once the law was in place, you started to see the benefits play out from it,” said Murkowski. She said those include tax provisions that have led companies to invest in microchip manufacturing and green energy technologies.

“People are saying, ‘Well, not sure that I liked what got us here, but I like what’s happening now, so don’t get rid of this,’” said Murkowski.

“Oftentimes it just doesn’t make sense to unspool it all,” said Murkowski.

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In Depth: Gov. Dunleavy discusses Trump victory, Alaska energy, ranked-choice voting

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In Depth: Gov. Dunleavy discusses Trump victory, Alaska energy, ranked-choice voting


Less than one day after Donald Trump’s historic win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy sat down with Alaska’s News Source political reporter Steve Kirch to discuss the electoral win, his own election night experience, what Trump’s victory means to Alaska and the state’s energy resource needs, and how his role as governor might change in the future.



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Goodbye to Alaska, hello to Lower 48 for nation’s Capitol Christmas tree in Washington state

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Goodbye to Alaska, hello to Lower 48 for nation’s Capitol Christmas tree in Washington state


Members of the Alaska National Guard say that in being part of a Klatt Elementary assembly, students will end up deciding to say no to drug and tobacco products.
The assembly — which also featured representatives from the American Lung Association, Drug Enforcement Administration, Anchorage Police Department and Alaska State Troopers — also delivered an anti-bullying message.
What would end up being a surprise for the students Monday came as school leaders wrapped up Red Ribbon Week, the longest-running drug and violence prevention program in the United States.



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