Alaska Supreme Court to resolve long-standing wage and hour issue

In a major development that will have a significant impact on employers in Alaska, the Alaska Supreme Court recently accepted a request from a federal court to decide the burden of proof for establishing wage and hour exemptions under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act (AWHA). The case is Travis Bunton v. Schlumberger Technology Corporation.

Alaska's unique burden of proof

Currently, employers must prove exemptions under the AWHA by using the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard, which is the burden of proof used in criminal cases. “Beyond a reasonable doubt” is the most difficult evidentiary standard to satisfy. By contrast, the burden of proof under federal wage and hour law is the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, which is sometimes described as a “more likely than not” or a “51/49” proposition.

Alaska is the only state that imposes such a high burden of proof on employers attempting to establish a wage and hour exemption. The overwhelming majority of state and federal jurisdictions use the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. Two or three jurisdictions use the clear-and-convincing evidence standard, which is an intermediate standard between the preponderance-of-the-evidence and the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standards. The burden of proof is critical because it dictates how much evidence or proof a party needs to persuade the judge or jury to side with it.