State lawmakers voted to increase state unemployment benefits for the first time since 2009 during the state Legislature’s race to the finish on May 20. They attached the change to a largely unrelated travel insurance bill with an amendment on the Senate floor hours before the Legislature adjourned its regular session.
If signed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, House Bill 302 would increase the maximum weekly benefit by $100 to $470. It would also triple the allowance for dependents to $72 per week. Future increases in the weekly benefit would be linked to wage growth.
Juneau Democratic Sen. Jesse Kiehl explained to his Senate colleagues shortly before the vote that the change would put Alaska just above the national median unemployment benefit. About one in 50 Alaskans got at least one payment in 2024.
“This simply provides a little improvement to a system, a support that you really need when you're looking for a job,” Kiehl said. “It keeps folks housed and fed, (but) certainly doesn't keep anybody rolling in it.”
The change included in House Bill 302 would not require employers to increase their unemployment contributions because the account that funds unemployment insurance is already “tremendously overfunded,” Kiehl said. An official with the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development verified that in testimony to lawmakers last year, saying that as of September 2024, the $774 million unemployment trust fund had $186 million more than its statutory minimum balance.
A variety of lawmakers have proposed increasing unemployment benefits. A parallel effort attached to a paid family leave bill stalled in the final days of the session in the Senate after the House voted narrowly to amend the bill to partially repeal a voter-approved initiative offering most Alaska workers paid sick leave.
Despite the change proposed in the bill, Alaska’s unemployment benefits would still be substantially lower than in many states, including Washington, which offers workers up to roughly $1,150 per week. Rep. Zack Fields, an Anchorage Democrat, said the bump in benefits would help Alaska retain construction workers and other tradespeople.
“One of the reasons we've been losing skilled tradesworkers is they can't make ends meet,” he said. “In every other state in the Pacific Northwest, they can earn a lot better wages, recognizing that construction, oil and gas is inherently seasonal.”
The bill passed the Senate along caucus lines, 14 to 6 and in a wider, cross-caucus vote of 34 to 6 in the House. All of the opposing votes came from the House and Senate’s all-Republican minority caucuses. The lone lawmaker to explain his no vote, Anchorage Republican Sen. James Kaufman, said he was concerned about “stuffing” the unemployment provisions into the travel insurance bill.
“I think it's bad practice and a bad harbinger for the future,” Kaufman said.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has not said whether he plans to sign the bill.
