Alaska Statutes
Article 9. General Provisions.
Sec. 23.20.526. Exclusions from definition of “employment”.

(a) In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, “employment” does not include
(1) domestic service in a private home, except as provided in AS 23.20.525(a)(13);
(2) newsboys' services in selling or distributing newspapers on the street or from house to house;
(3) service not in the course of the employing unit's trade or business performed in a calendar quarter by an individual, unless the cash remuneration paid for the service is $50 or more and the service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by the employing unit to perform the service; an individual is here considered to be regularly employed to perform service not in the course of an employing unit's trade or business during a calendar quarter only if the individual performs the service for some portion of the day on each of 24 days during the quarter or during the preceding calendar quarter;
(4) service performed by an individual in the employ of the individual's
(A) son, daughter, or spouse;
(B) parent or legal guardian if the individual was under the age of 21 years and a full-time student during eight of the last 12 months and intends to resume full-time student status within the next four months; and
(C) mother or father if the service is performed by a child under the age of 18;
(5) service with respect to which unemployment insurance is payable under an unemployment insurance program established by an Act of Congress;
(6) service performed in the employ of a foreign government including service as a consular or other officer or employee or a nondiplomatic representative;
(7) service performed in the employ of an instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government if
(A) the service is of a character similar to that performed in foreign countries by employees of the United States government or its instrumentalities; and
(B) the department finds that the United States Secretary of State has certified to the United States Secretary of the Treasury that the foreign government, with respect to whose instrumentality exemption is claimed, grants an equivalent exemption with respect to similar service performed in the foreign country by employees of the United States government and its instrumentalities;
(8) service performed by an insurance agent, insurance solicitor, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or securities salesperson to the extent the person is compensated by commission, unless the service is required to be covered under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, as amended;
(9) notwithstanding AS 23.20.525(a)(9), service performed by an officer or member of the crew of an American vessel on or in connection with the vessel, if the operating office, from which the operations of the vessel operating on navigable waters inside or inside and outside the United States are ordinarily and regularly supervised, managed, directed, and controlled, is outside this state;
(10) service performed on or in connection with a vessel not an American vessel by an individual if the individual performed service on and in connection with the vessel when outside the United States;
(11) service performed in the employ of the United States government or an instrumentality of the United States exempt under the Constitution of the United States from the contributions imposed by this chapter, except that to the extent that the Congress of the United States permits states to require an instrumentality of the United States to make payments into an unemployment fund under a state employment security law, all of the provisions of this chapter apply to the instrumentalities, and to service performed for the instrumentalities in the same manner, to the same extent, and on the same terms as to all other employers, employing units, individuals, and service; however, if this state is not certified for any year by the United States Secretary of Labor under 26 U.S.C. 3304(c) (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Internal Revenue Code), the payments required of the instrumentalities with respect to the year shall be refunded by the department from the fund in the same manner and within the same period as is provided in AS 23.20.225 with respect to contributions erroneously collected;
(12) service performed in the employ of another state, or political subdivision of another state, or an instrumentality of another state or political subdivision that is wholly owned by another state or its political subdivision, or a service performed in the employ of an instrumentality of another state or its political subdivisions to the extent that the instrumentality is, with respect to the service, exempt under the Constitution of the United States from the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3301 (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Internal Revenue Code);
(13) service performed in the employ of an international organization;
(14) service covered by an election approved by the agency charged with the administration of any other state or federal employment security law, in accordance with an arrangement under AS 23.20.090(a) during the effective period of the election;
(15) service performed by an individual in agricultural labor, except as provided in AS 23.20.525(a)(14); the term “agricultural labor” means remunerated service
(A) on a farm, in the employ of any person in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and fur-bearing animals and wildlife;
(B) in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of the farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of the service is performed on a farm;
(C) in connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in 12 U.S.C. 1141j (Sec. 15(g), Agricultural Marketing Act), as amended, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes;
(D) in the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity; but only if the operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed except as stated in (b) of this section;
(E) in the employ of a group of operators of farms, or a cooperative organization of which the operators are members, in the performance of service described in (D) of this paragraph, but only if the operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed;
(F) on a farm operated for profit if the service is not in the course of the employer's trade or business;
(16) service performed as a student nurse in the employ of a hospital or a nurses' training school by an individual who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes in a nurses' training school chartered or approved in accordance with the laws of this state, and service performed as an intern in the employ of a hospital by an individual who has completed a four-year course in a medical school chartered or approved in accordance with the laws of this state, unless the service is required to be covered under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act;
(17) service performed by an individual on a boat engaged in catching fish or other forms of aquatic animal life under an arrangement with the owner or operator of that boat under which
(A) that individual does not receive any cash remuneration except as provided in (B) of this paragraph;
(B) that individual receives a share of the boat's, or the boats' in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life or a share of the proceeds from the sale of that catch; and
(C) the amount of that individual's share depends on the amount of the boat's, or the boats' in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life; but only if the operating crew of that boat, or each boat from which the individual receives a share in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, is normally made up of fewer than 10 individuals;
(18) service performed as a prospective or impaneled juror in a court;
(19) service performed for a corporation by an employee of the corporation if
(A) the corporation is incorporated under AS 10.06;
(B) the corporation is not a government corporation; and
(C) the employee is an executive officer of the corporation;
(20) service performed by an individual who drives a taxicab whose compensation and written contractual arrangements are as described in AS 23.10.055(a)(13);
(21) service of an individual who
(A) directly sells or solicits the sale of consumer products, for resale or otherwise, personally to a prospective consumer in the home or otherwise than in a permanent retail establishment; a sale or solicitation by telephone, mail, other telecommunications method, or other nonpersonal method does not satisfy the requirement of this subparagraph;
(B) is compensated solely by
(i) commissions on sales or other remuneration directly related to sales or sales performance; or
(ii) a profit represented by the difference between the wholesale cost of the product to the seller and the final sale price to the consumer; and
(C) performs under a written contract with the person for whom the service is performed that provides, notwithstanding AS 23.20.395(a), that the individual is not an employee for purposes of this chapter or for federal or state tax purposes;
(22) temporary services related to emergency oil spill training and response activities by an individual described in (17) of this subsection; in this paragraph, “temporary” means a period of less than seven continuous days; and
(23) volunteer work performed by a person engaged on a contract basis as a sports official at a sports event for which the competitors are not paid a wage or salary; however, the exemption provided under this paragraph does not apply to a claim for benefits under this chapter that is related to a sports event or competition sponsored by an employer for whom the person making the claim normally performs work, including work as a teacher, coach, or administrator, that is not sports official work; in this paragraph,
(A) “sports official” is a participant in a sports event or competition whose participation is neutral with respect to who wins or loses, including an umpire, referee, judge, scorekeeper, timekeeper, or organizer;
(B) “volunteer work” means work for which compensation does not exceed $1,500 a year and is paid only to defray or reimburse the reasonable food, travel, and incidental expenses the person incurs in order to perform the work or as a result of performing the work.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the provisions of (a)(15)(D) and (E) of this section are not applicable to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption.
(c) In (a)(15) of this section, “farm” includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal, and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities, and orchards.
(d) For the purposes of AS 23.20.525(a)(4) and (12), the term “employment” does not apply to service performed
(1) by a duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church in the exercise of the person's ministry or by a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by the order;
(2) in a facility conducted for the purpose of carrying out a program of rehabilitation for individuals whose earning capacity is impaired by age or physical or mental deficiency or injury or providing remunerative work for individuals who, because of their impaired physical or mental capacity, cannot be readily absorbed in the competitive labor market by an individual receiving the rehabilitation or remunerative work;
(3) as part of an unemployment work-relief or work-training program assisted or financed in whole or in part by a federally recognized tribe or any federal agency or any agency of a state or political subdivision of the state, by an individual receiving work relief or work training;
(4) for a state hospital by an inmate of a prison or correctional institution;
(5) in the employ of a school, college, or university if the service is performed by a student who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes at the school, college, or university;
(6) by an individual under the age of 22 who is enrolled at a nonprofit or public educational institution that normally maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly organized body of students in attendance at the place where its educational activities are carried on as a student in a full-time program, taken for credit at the institution, that combines academic instruction with work experience if the service is an integral part of the program and the institution has so certified to the employer, except that this paragraph does not apply to service performed in a program established for or on behalf of an employer or group of employers;
(7) in the employ of a hospital if the service is performed by a patient of the hospital, as defined in AS 23.20.520;
(8) in the employ of the state or a political subdivision of the state if the service is performed by an individual in the exercise of duties
(A) as a judicial officer, the governor, the lieutenant governor, a person hired or appointed as the head or deputy head of a department in the executive branch, a person hired or appointed as the director of a division of a department in the executive branch, an assistant to the governor, a chair or member of a state commission or board, state investment officers and the state comptroller in the Department of Revenue, an appointed or elected municipal officer, any other elected official, the fiscal analyst of the legislative finance division, the legislative auditor of the legislative audit division, the executive director of the Legislative Affairs Agency, and the directors of the divisions within the Legislative Affairs Agency;
(B) as a member of the Alaska Army National Guard or Alaska Air National Guard or Alaska Naval Militia;
(C) as an employee serving on only a temporary basis in case of fire, storm, snow, earthquake, flood, or similar emergency; or
(D) as an election official or election worker if the amount of remuneration received by the individual during the calendar year for services as an election official or election worker is less than $1,000;
(9) in the employ of
(A) a church or a convention or association of churches; or
(B) an organization that is operated primarily for religious purposes and that is operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or a convention or association of churches;
(10) in the employ of a federally recognized tribe in this state if the service is performed by an individual in the exercise of duties as an officer of the federally recognized tribe and meets the requirements of 26 U.S.C. 3309(b)(3)(E) (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Internal Revenue Code).