If you were fired or laid off, Alaska gives your employer three working days after your last day to pay everything owed.
Law: Alaska Stat. §23.05.140 · Rules checked October 2026
If you quit, your check is due on the next regular payday that falls at least three working days after you gave written notice of quitting.
Alaska sets no automatic per-day penalty; unpaid wages are recovered through a state wage claim or court, where the wages themselves are the recovery.
Your state lets the employer's own policy decide. If the handbook or your offer letter promises payout of accrued vacation — or the company has a practice of paying it — that promise is enforceable. If the policy says unused vacation is forfeited at separation, the state will generally hold you to it.
The free claim goes to Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It costs nothing and you do not need a lawyer; what you need is the amount computed, the demand already sent where your state rewards one, and the file assembled.
Filing window: set by state law and shorter than people expect — file within weeks, not months.
Compute your Alaska verdict — free
General information from the published statute — not legal advice. Penalty figures elsewhere on this site are statutory maximums, with willfulness conditions named where the statute names them.