Primary sources
- Alaska Stat. 23.05.140. Accessed 1 October 2026.
United States · Alaska · Final pay child
Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware
When is a final paycheck due in Alaska?
Alaska counts in working days and says so explicitly, which makes it meaningfully more generous than the states measuring the same kind of deadline in clock hours or calendar days.
· Alaska, United States guide
Answer · cite this
In Alaska, after a discharge, an employer must pay all monies owed within three working days after the day of termination, not counting weekends and holidays, under Alaska Stat. 23.05.140. An employee who quits is paid by the next regular payday.
The "not counting weekends and holidays" qualifier is the state's own, and it is what separates Alaska from Utah next door in character if not in geography: a Thursday discharge in Alaska runs to the following Tuesday.
Alaska also attaches a condition to the resignation side that most states do not: the next regular payday must itself fall at least three working days after the employee gave notice.
When must a final paycheck be paid after firing someone in Alaska?
Within three working days after the day of termination, not counting weekends and holidays, under Alaska Stat. 23.05.140.
Three working days is enough room to run an off-cycle payment and not enough to wait for a pay cycle. Because weekends are excluded, the real-world window is often a full calendar week, which makes Alaska one of the more workable of the short-deadline states.
The count starts after the day of termination rather than on it, so a Monday discharge runs to Thursday.
The duty to pay is separate from whether the termination itself was lawful. That is covered on the Alaska termination and at-will page.
What if the employee resigns instead?
The next regular payday, provided that payday falls at least three working days after the employee gave notice.
That proviso is unusual and it protects the employer rather than the employee: a resignation given the day before payday does not compel you to pay on that payday.
It also means a resignation with no notice at all can push the obligation to the payday after the next one, which is the opposite of how states like Oregon treat notice.
How does Alaska compare with the states around it?
Alaska's working-day count puts it between the clock-hour states and the next-payday states.
| State | If fired | If employee quits | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Within 3 working days after termination | Next regular payday at least 3 working days after notice | Alaska Stat. 23.05.140 |
| Washington | Next regular payday | Next regular payday | Wash. Rev. Code 49.48.010 |
| Oregon | End of the next business day | Immediately if 48 hours notice given, otherwise within 5 business days or next payday, whichever comes first | Or. Rev. Stat. 652.140 |
| Utah | Within 24 hours of termination | Next regular payday | Utah Code 34-28-5 |
| Montana | Immediately upon separation, unless a written policy extends to the next payday or within 15 days, whichever is earlier | Next regular payday or within 15 days, whichever comes first | Mont. Code 39-3-205 |
The full 50-state picture is on the final paycheck laws by state table.
Alaska final pay, in short
- Deadline if fired
- Within 3 working days after termination
- Deadline if the employee quits
- Next regular payday at least 3 working days after notice
- Governing statute
- Alaska Stat. 23.05.140
- Source
- Primary source
- Last verified
How much of this do you still handle if you hire in Alaska through an EOR?
None of it. The three-working-day count, the payment and the wage records sit with the employer of record.
What costs more than the deadline is everything around it:
- onboarding and offboarding fees
- termination charges
- contracts that lock you in
- FX markups on every pay run
- a platform built for a company ten times your size
- a ticket queue where you never learn who to contact
The industry profits from keeping that hidden. Teamed calls it the Hidden Global Employment Tax, and Teamed's whole model exists to remove it.
Teamed is the legal employer for your Alaska hire. From $599 per employee per month, with zero FX markup. $0 setup, $0 exit, and you can cancel any month. You get a designated person and real HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, not a ticket.
Teamed's employer cost calculator covers 94 countries and all 50 US states.
Questions people ask about Alaska final pay
When is a final paycheck due in Alaska if someone is fired?
Within three working days after the day of termination, not counting weekends and holidays, under Alaska Stat. 23.05.140.
When is it due if the employee quits?
The next regular payday, provided that payday falls at least three working days after the employee gave notice.
Do weekends count towards Alaska's three-day final pay deadline?
No. Alaska's Department of Labor states the rule as three working days after the day of termination, not counting weekends and holidays. A Thursday discharge therefore runs to the following Tuesday rather than to Sunday, which makes Alaska more generous than a state counting the same number in calendar days.
A note from Tom Price-Daniel
Alaska is one of the fairer short deadlines in the country.
Three working days, weekends and holidays excluded, which usually means a calendar week.
That is enough time to do it properly, so there is no excuse for missing it.
Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed
Looking for a job in Alaska yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
