Filing a Workplace Harassment Complaint in Alaska
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team - Alaska - Last updated September 15, 2026
Alaska gives you 300 days to bring a harassment complaint to the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, and the first useful thing to know is that the number is not in the statute. AS 18.80.100, the section headed Complaint; withdrawal, sets out what a complaint must contain and says nothing at all about how long you have. The 300 days comes from a commission regulation, 6 AAC 30.230(b), which provides that a complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice not of a continuing nature must be filed no later than 300 days after the act or practice occurred. Anyone who tells you the deadline is in AS 18.80.100 is citing a section that does not contain it. The next subsection is the one that matters most for harassment. 6 AAC 30.230(c) provides that a complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice of a continuing nature must be filed no later than 300 days after the alleged act or practice stopped. Harassment that runs over weeks or months is the ordinary example of a continuing practice, so an Alaska worker whose harassment began long ago and ended recently is measured from the ending, not the beginning. That rule is written into the regulation rather than left to argument, which is unusual. Going to the commission is not something you have to do first. AS 18.80 has no exhaustion provision, no right-to-sue letter and no election of remedies bar. Instead AS 18.80.145 is written around a private plaintiff who is already in superior court in an action brought under AS 22.10.020(i), and at subsection (d) it provides that if the commission does not intervene or conduct a hearing, the court has complete jurisdiction of the case. The regulation agrees: under 6 AAC 30.920, a plaintiff who files in superior court serves a copy on the executive director, and the commission will then seek intervention or deferral, or close or hold in abeyance the complaint before it. Filing with the commission does not forfeit court, and filing in court does not forfeit anything beyond pausing the agency file. What this guide will not do is put a number on the court deadline. Nothing in AS 18.80 or 6 AAC 30 states a limitation period for a superior court action, and the 300 days in 6 AAC 30.230 is by its own terms a rule about when the commission may receive a complaint. Ask an Alaska employment lawyer what the court period is rather than assuming the agency figure carries over. If what you are dealing with involves assault, threats, stalking or domestic violence, contact emergency services and speak with an attorney; that needs more than a complaint form.
Find out where you stand in Alaska
Where are you with the harassment complaint?
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How long do I have to file a workplace harassment complaint in Alaska?
300 days, and the rule is a regulation rather than a statute. 6 AAC 30.230(b) requires a complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice not of a continuing nature to be filed no later than 300 days after the act or practice occurred. AS 18.80.100 contains no filing period at all, so sources that cite the statute for the deadline are citing the wrong provision. Under 6 AAC 30.230(a) the filing date is the postmark date or the date the commission receives the complaint, whichever is earlier.
My harassment in Alaska went on for a year. Which date does the clock run from?
From the day it stopped. 6 AAC 30.230(c) provides that a complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice of a continuing nature must be filed no later than 300 days after the alleged act or practice stopped. A hostile work environment that ran for months or years is the ordinary case of a continuing practice, so a worker whose harassment began three years ago and ended last month is measured from last month. Record both the first and the last incident, because which subsection applies depends on whether the conduct was a single act or a course of conduct.
Do I have to file with the state agency before I can sue for harassment in Alaska?
No. AS 18.80 contains no exhaustion requirement, no right-to-sue letter and no provision making an agency complaint an election that closes the courthouse. AS 18.80.145 is written around a private plaintiff already suing in superior court in an action brought under AS 22.10.020(i), and subsection (d) provides that where the commission does not intervene or conduct a hearing, the court has complete jurisdiction of the case. 6 AAC 30.920 says the same thing from the agency side, directing a court plaintiff to serve the executive director and leaving the commission to seek intervention or deferral or to close or hold its own file in abeyance.
The clock that can end your claim is not in the Alaska Human Rights Law at all, and for harassment that ran for months it starts on the day the conduct stopped.
The 300 days lives in a commission regulation, not in the Alaska Human Rights Law. 6 AAC 30.230(b) sets the period for a discriminatory act or practice not of a continuing nature at 300 days after the act or practice occurred. AS 18.80.100 itself contains no filing period of any kind, so a source citing the statute for the deadline is citing the wrong place. The regulation is what closes the door, and it is what you should calendar to.
Relevant Laws
6 AAC 30.230(c): Continuing Practices Run From the Date They Stopped
A complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice of a continuing nature must be filed no later than 300 days after the alleged act or practice stopped. Record the last incident as well as the first, because ongoing harassment is measured from the end of the course of conduct.
AS 18.80.145(d) and 6 AAC 30.920: No Agency Step Is Required Before Suing
AS 18.80.145 assumes a private plaintiff already in superior court under AS 22.10.020(i) and provides at subsection (d) that where the commission does not intervene, the court has complete jurisdiction of the case. 6 AAC 30.920 directs a court plaintiff to serve the executive director, after which the commission may seek intervention or deferral or close or hold its own file in abeyance.
AS 18.80.300(5): One Employee Is Enough, but Nonprofits Are Carved Out
Employer means a person, including the state and a political subdivision, who has one or more employees in the state, with no hours or weeks qualifier. The same paragraph excludes an exclusively social club and any fraternal, charitable, educational or religious association or corporation not organized for private profit.
AS 18.80.300(4): Domestic Service Workers Are Outside the Definition of Employee
Employee means an individual employed by an employer but does not include an individual employed in the domestic service of any person. Household workers are therefore outside the Act regardless of how many people the household employs.
AS 18.80.220(a): The Bases Covered, Including Changes in Marital Status and Parenthood
Coverage runs to race, religion, color, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, sex, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy and parenthood, with retaliation covered at AS 18.80.220(a)(3). Sexual orientation and gender identity do not appear anywhere in AS 18.80 or 6 AAC 30.
Regional Variances
How Alaska differs
For harassment that continued over time, the clock starts
For harassment that continued over time, the clock starts when the conduct stopped. 6 AAC 30.230(c) provides that a complaint alleging a discriminatory act or practice of a continuing nature must be filed no later than 300 days after the alleged act or practice stopped. A hostile environment that ran for two years and ended last month is therefore measured from last month. Alaska writes that rule into the text rather than leaving it to case law, which is rare.
The 300 days is a deadline to have a
The 300 days is a deadline to have a notarized complaint in the commission's hands, not a deadline to make contact. AS 18.80.100(a) requires a written, verified complaint, and 6 AAC 30.220(b) requires notarization. The commission's own guidance says a complaint must be drafted, notarized and filed within 300 days of the alleged discriminatory act, while also telling people to make contact within the same 300 days. Do not rely on contacting the commission late in the period and having staff draft and notarize instantly, although 6 AAC 30.210(d) does provide free notary service.
Going to the commission is optional in Alaska, and
Going to the commission is optional in Alaska, and this is the structural point the whole page turns on. AS 18.80 contains no exhaustion requirement, no right-to-sue letter and no provision making an agency filing an election that forecloses court. AS 18.80.145 instead assumes a private plaintiff already in superior court under AS 22.10.020(i), and subsection (d) leaves the court with complete jurisdiction of the case where the commission does not intervene. Under 6 AAC 30.920 the commission responds to a court filing by seeking intervention or deferral, or by closing or holding its own file in abeyance.
Suggested Compliance Checklist
AS 18.80.300(5): One Employee Is Enough, but Nonprofits Are Carved Out
See your deadline days after startingEmployer means a person, including the state and a political subdivision, who has one or more employees in the state, with no hours or weeks qualifier. The same paragraph excludes an exclusively social club and any fraternal, charitable, educational or religious association or corporation not organized for private profit.
AS 18.80.300(4): Domestic Service Workers Are Outside the Definition of Employee
See your deadline days after startingEmployee means an individual employed by an employer but does not include an individual employed in the domestic service of any person. Household workers are therefore outside the Act regardless of how many people the household employs.
AS 18.80.220(a): The Bases Covered, Including Changes in Marital Status and Parenthood
See your deadline days after startingCoverage runs to race, religion, color, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, sex, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy and parenthood, with retaliation covered at AS 18.80.220(a)(3). Sexual orientation and gender identity do not appear anywhere in AS 18.80 or 6 AAC 30.
EEOC: Calendar the Federal Charge Separately From the State Complaint
See your deadline days after startingThe federal charge deadline is 180 days from the alleged act, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same discrimination, for employers with 15 or more employees. Confirm the figure that applies to you with the EEOC office covering Alaska rather than assuming it matches the state period.
| Task | Description | Document | Days after starting |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS 18.80.300(5): One Employee Is Enough, but Nonprofits Are Carved Out | Employer means a person, including the state and a political subdivision, who has one or more employees in the state, with no hours or weeks qualifier. The same paragraph excludes an exclusively social club and any fraternal, charitable, educational or religious association or corporation not organized for private profit. | - | See your deadline |
| AS 18.80.300(4): Domestic Service Workers Are Outside the Definition of Employee | Employee means an individual employed by an employer but does not include an individual employed in the domestic service of any person. Household workers are therefore outside the Act regardless of how many people the household employs. | - | See your deadline |
| AS 18.80.220(a): The Bases Covered, Including Changes in Marital Status and Parenthood | Coverage runs to race, religion, color, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, sex, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy and parenthood, with retaliation covered at AS 18.80.220(a)(3). Sexual orientation and gender identity do not appear anywhere in AS 18.80 or 6 AAC 30. | - | See your deadline |
| EEOC: Calendar the Federal Charge Separately From the State Complaint | The federal charge deadline is 180 days from the alleged act, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same discrimination, for employers with 15 or more employees. Confirm the figure that applies to you with the EEOC office covering Alaska rather than assuming it matches the state period. | - | See your deadline |
Frequently Asked Questions
Nothing in AS 18.80 or 6 AAC 30 makes a commission complaint foreclose a court action on the same conduct, which is the opposite of the rule in some other states. 6 AAC 30.920 has the commission close or hold in abeyance its own file when a court case covers the same parties or issues, rather than treating the court filing as a forfeiture. What does change with the forum is the remedy: the commission states that it has no authority to award damages beyond make-whole relief and no authority to award punitive damages. That is a reason to talk to a lawyer about which route you want before you commit to one.
It closes the commission's door. 6 AAC 30.230 is framed as a rule about when a complaint may be filed with the commission, so a late complaint is a problem for the administrative route specifically. This guide will not tell you what it does to a superior court action, because neither AS 18.80 nor 6 AAC 30 states a limitation period for the action that AS 18.80.145 assumes exists, and no number should be guessed from the agency figure. Take your dates to an Alaska employment lawyer promptly, and remember that a federal charge runs on its own separate clock.
Under state law, yes. AS 18.80.300(5) defines employer as a person, including the state and a political subdivision of the state, who has one or more employees in the state, and there is no hours worked or weeks worked qualifier attached to it. Federal Title VII needs 15 or more employees, so a worker at a two or three person Alaska business can have a complete state claim and no federal one at all. That makes the state route the one that matters most for small employer cases.
This is the part of the coverage rule that cuts the other way, and it is unusually wide. AS 18.80.300(5) excludes from employer a club that is exclusively social, and any fraternal, charitable, educational or religious association or corporation that is not organized for private profit. On the face of that text a nonprofit school or a charitable nonprofit is not an employer under the Act at all, which reaches further than the usual religious employer exemption. AS 18.80.300(4) separately provides that employee does not include an individual employed in the domestic service of any person, so household workers are outside the Act, and anyone in either group should ask a lawyer about the federal route.
Not in the state statute. The words sexual orientation and gender identity do not appear anywhere in AS 18.80 or in the commission's regulations at 6 AAC 30, so the Alaska Human Rights Law provides no employment protection on either basis. Federal law is a separate track, and it reaches only employers with 15 or more employees. If this is your situation, it is worth asking an Alaska employment lawyer about the federal route and about whether any ordinance where you work applies, because AS 18.80.290 does contemplate local human rights commissions.
AS 18.80.220(a) makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person in compensation or in a term, condition, or privilege of employment because of race, religion, color, or national origin, or because of age, physical or mental disability, sex, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy, or parenthood. Changes in marital status is listed as its own basis alongside marital status, and parenthood is a standalone class that reaches a parent of any sex rather than only a pregnant worker. Because the word harassment does not appear in the statute, a hostile environment claim is built through that terms, conditions or privileges language. AS 18.80.220(a)(3) separately covers retaliation for opposing a forbidden practice or for filing a complaint, testifying or assisting in a proceeding.
It is usually worth doing, and the two clocks should be calendared separately rather than assumed to match. The federal charge deadline is 180 days from the alleged act, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same discrimination, and Title VII reaches employers with 15 or more employees. Because the deadline the EEOC applies to a particular state can change without notice, confirm your own date with the EEOC office that covers Alaska rather than working from a number you read elsewhere. Nothing in AS 18.80 makes a state filing foreclose a court action, so pursuing both routes does not cost you the state claim.
Other Alaska guides
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