If elected, Republican governor candidates Dave Bronson and Bernadette Wilson said they would seek to roll back Alaska’s mandatory sick leave law and eliminate a minimum wage increase approved by voters in 2024.
The two spoke at a forum hosted Wednesday in Juneau by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, which is in favor of rolling back the sick leave law.
Four candidates are running for governor in this year’s general election — Wilson, Bronson, Democratic candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, and Republican candidate Treg Taylor. All except Taylor attended Wednesday’s event.
Seasonal employers — particularly in the seafood and tourism industries — are seeking to roll back the law because they said some seasonal workers have begun using sick leave as terminal leave at the end of the summer.
This spring, the Alaska House voted 22-18 on a bill to end sick leave immediately for seasonal workers and employers with nine or fewer workers. The rollback bill failed to pass the Senate before the end of the legislative session but is expected to return in 2027.
“I absolutely support an exemption for seasonal workers,” said Wilson.
“I would support introducing legislation to go back and repeal that ballot measure. It did not have the effect that it needed,” she said.
The 2024 ballot measure included both mandatory sick leave and a minimum wage increase. Under the law, Alaska’s minimum wage increased from $11.73 per hour to $13 per hour in 2025, and $14 this year. It will rise to $15 per hour in 2027, then rise with inflation each year after that.
Wilson said after Wednesday’s event that she does support repealing both the sick leave requirement and the minimum wage increases prescribed by the 2024 ballot measure.
So did Bronson, who said that while he isn’t proposing to eliminate the state’s minimum wage altogether, he wouldn’t mind doing so.
“In most small businesses, as you know, there’s no greater cost really than your employees, and to raise the cost of your greatest cost is prohibitive. My belief is that government shouldn’t be in the business of telling small business and private enterprise what to be doing in this regard, in the first place,” he said. “Mandatory sick leave, minimum wage — I would repeal them both because small business will figure this out.”
Kreiss-Tomkins, sharing the stage with Wilson and Bronson, was more moderate on the sick leave issue but said he does support changes to what voters enacted.
“Broadly speaking, I support paid sick leave,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. He added that he has heard from seafood and tourism trade organizations, “and I do think it is appropriate to look at amendments to the paid sick leave law.”
“I don’t know if that’s a wholesale exemption, but certainly making adjustments to the law that recognize the unique dynamics around seasonal industries and seasonal businesses is something that makes sense,” he said.
After the debate, Kreiss-Tomkins said he opposes lowering the minimum wage.
Taylor, by text message afterward, said he also supports amending the sick leave law.
“Yes, I agree!” he said in a text message sent through his campaign manager, April Gettys, “139,534 Alaskans work for small businesses, and I want to fix this law so those businesses can keep hiring and keep their doors open – Alaska should lead the nation in job opportunities. That means working with the Legislature to adjust the statute so it works for the corner café, the seasonal operator and the rural business. More jobs, more paychecks, more families staying in Alaska.”
