Case: Wage & Hour/Burden of Proof (Alaska)

The Alaska Supreme Court held that employers are only required to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a worker held an executive, administrative, or professional role exempt from state overtime pay requirements. An earlier decision holding that a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard for assessing whether a worker falls under any exemptions to the Alaska Wage and Hour Act is “overruled,” the court said in answering a certified question from a federal court in a case involving an employee of Schlumberger Tech. Corp. The AWHA’s overtime pay exemptions must be given a “fair” rather than a narrow interpretation, the court said ...