Alaska Statutes
Article 9. General Provisions.
Sec. 23.20.520. Definitions.

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires,
(1) “American vessel” means a vessel documented or numbered under the laws of the United States, or a vessel not documented or numbered under the laws of the United States nor documented under the laws of a foreign country, if its crew performs service solely for one or more citizens or residents of the United States or corporations organized under the laws of the United States or of a state;
(2) “average annual wage” means the amount determined by dividing the total wages paid by covered employers during a 12-month period by the average monthly employment reported by covered employers for the same period;
(3) “base period” means the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of an individual's benefit year, except that, if an individual would not otherwise be eligible for unemployment compensation because of the use of a base period that does not include the most recently completed calendar quarter immediately preceding the first day of an individual's benefit year, “base period” means, and eligibility shall be determined using, the four most recently completed calendar quarters before the start of the benefit year;
(4) “benefit year” means a period of 52 consecutive weeks beginning at 12:00 a.m. of the Sunday preceding the day that an insured worker first files a request for determination of the worker's insured status, and, thereafter, the period of 52 consecutive weeks beginning at 12:00 a.m. of the Sunday preceding the day that the insured worker next files the request after the end of the worker's last preceding benefit year; however, for a worker covered by this paragraph, “benefit year” also means a period of 53 weeks if the filing of a request for determination would result in overlapping any quarter of the base year of a previously filed request for determination; the filing of a notice of unemployment is considered a request for determination of insured status if a current benefit year has not previously been established;
(5) “benefits” means the money payments payable to an individual, as provided in this chapter with respect to the individual's unemployment;
(6) “calendar quarter” means the period of three consecutive calendar months ending March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31;
(7) “claimant” means an individual who has filed a request for a determination of insured status, a notice of unemployment, a certification for waiting-week credit, or a claim for benefits;
(8) “contribution” and “payment in place of contribution” mean the money payment to be made to the fund, which payments are taxes due to the state;
(9) “covered unemployment compensation debt” means
(A) a past due debt for erroneous payment of unemployment compensation under this chapter because of fraud or the person's failure to report earnings that has become final under this chapter and that remains uncollected;
(B) contributions due to the unemployment trust fund account (AS 23.20.135(a)) for which a person is liable and that remain uncollected; and
(C) any penalties and interest assessed on the debt;
(10) “employer” means (A) an employing unit which for some portion of a day within the calendar year has or had in employment one or more individuals; and (B) for the effective period of its election under AS 23.20.325, an employing unit which has elected to become subject to this chapter;
(11) “employing unit” means one or more departments or other agencies of the state, a political subdivision of the state, a federally recognized tribe, an individual, or a type of organization, partnership, association, trust, estate, joint trust company, insurance company, or domestic or foreign corporation, or the receiver, referee in bankruptcy, trustee, or successor of one of these, or the legal representative of a deceased person, that has or had one or more individuals performing service for it in the state; an individual performing services in the state for an employing unit that maintains two or more separate establishments in the state is considered as employed by a single employing unit for the purposes of this chapter; notwithstanding any provision in this chapter, any employing unit that employs individuals whose services must be covered by the unemployment insurance laws of this state as a condition of approval of the unemployment insurance laws of this state under 26 U.S.C. 3304(a) (Internal Revenue Code of 1954), as amended, will be considered an employer as to those individuals and is subject to contributions on all wages paid or reimbursement payments to cover benefits paid based on services performed, depending on the applicable law;
(12) “employment office” means a free public employment office or branch of one operated by this state or another state or territory as a part of a state-controlled system of public employment offices or by a federal agency or an agency of a foreign government charged with the administration of an unemployment insurance program or of free public employment offices;
(13) “federally recognized tribe”
(A) means a tribe that is recognized by the United States Secretary of the Interior to exist as an Indian tribe under 25 U.S.C. 5131 (Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994);
(B) includes any subdivision, subsidiary, or business enterprise wholly owned by a federally recognized tribe;
(14) “fund” means the unemployment compensation fund established by this chapter;
(15) “hospital” means any institution primarily engaged in the treatment of emotional or physical disability which provides, on a regular basis, 24-hour-a-day bed care under the supervision of licensed medical personnel and those components, of other institutions, which are primarily engaged in the treatment of emotional or physical disability and which provide, on a regular basis, 24-hour-a-day bed care under the supervision of licensed medical personnel;
(16) “institution of higher education” means an educational institution that
(A) admits as regular students only individuals having a certificate of graduation from a high school, or the recognized equivalent of a high school graduation certificate;
(B) is legally authorized in the state in which it is located to provide a program of education beyond high school;
(C) provides an educational program for which it awards a bachelor's or higher degree, or provides a program that is acceptable for full credit toward either degree, a program of postgraduate or postdoctoral studies, or a program of training to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation; and
(D) is operated by a federally recognized tribe or is a public or other nonprofit institution;
(17) “insured work” means employment for employers;
(18) “insured worker” means an individual who, with respect to a base period, meets the wage and employment requirements of AS 23.20.350;
(19) “municipal agency” means an agency of a municipality of the state; in this paragraph, “municipality” has the meaning given in AS 29.71.800;
(20) “state” includes the states of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands;
(21) “vocational training or retraining course” means a course of vocational or technical training or retraining in schools or classes, including field or laboratory work and related remedial or academic instruction, which is conducted as a program designed to prepare individuals for employment in trades, skills, or crafts; the term “vocational training or retraining course” does not include a program of instruction for an individual, including a transfer credit program of instruction given at a community college, which is intended as credit for a degree from an institution of higher education;
(22) “waiting week” means the first week of unemployment for which an individual files a claim during the individual's benefit year and for which no disqualification is imposed under AS 23.20.360, 23.20.362, 23.20.375, and 23.20.378 - 23.20.387;
(23) “week” means the period of seven consecutive days which the department may by regulations prescribe.