Alaska requires a certificate of registration before anyone may submit a bid or work as a contractor, and the bond behind that registration is where a homeowner's money actually sits. A general contractor bonds at $25,000. A general contractor endorsed for residential work, and doing only residential work, bonds at $20,000. The residential tier is the lower one, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Auto repair shop labor rateAlaska average | $161 per hour |
| Full traditional dentureAlaska average | $2,173 per arch |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
AS 08.18.011 draws the line earlier than most states do. A person may not submit a bid or work as a contractor until that person has been issued a certificate of registration. The bid itself is regulated, so a quote from an unregistered contractor is already outside the Act.
The Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing describes the handyman tier as limited to projects with an aggregate contract of ten thousand dollars or less for each project. That is a ceiling on what a handyman registration permits, not a floor below which registration stops being required. Read it the other way round and you would conclude that small work needs nothing, which is not what the statute says.
AS 08.18.071 sets the bond by tier. Twenty-five thousand dollars for a general contractor. Twenty thousand for a general contractor holding a residential contractor endorsement and working exclusively on residential projects. Ten thousand for a mechanical or specialty contractor, or a home inspector. Five thousand at the handyman level.
The ordering looks like a transcription error and is not. Three separate Division documents carry it the same way. The homeowner hiring for a house is standing behind the smaller bond, not the larger one.
What the bond is for is set out in the statute rather than left to practice. It is conditioned on paying amounts that may be adjudged against the applicant by reason of negligent or improper work or breach of contract, and the Division's own guidance points an aggrieved homeowner at it. This page says nothing about what other remedies do or do not exist in the state, because the sources read for it do not establish that either way.
The table above carries two Alaska figures with a per-state source. Shop labor for auto repair is the highest of any state, which freight distance and a short building season make less surprising than the number alone suggests. A full traditional denture also runs above the national figure. Attorney hourly rates are deliberately absent: the source that publishes them state by state prints a dash here, and an empty cell is not a number worth republishing.
Ask for the registration number before you accept a bid, not after. The statute regulates the bid, so that is the earliest point at which the answer means anything.
Ask which bond tier the registration sits in, and for how much. A general contractor and a residential-endorsed general contractor are not carrying the same figure, and the gap between them runs against work on your house.
If the aggregate contract price is over ten thousand dollars, a handyman registration does not cover it. That is the one number in this system that maps directly onto the size of your project.
Where work has gone wrong, the bond is the route the Division itself points to. Find out who the surety is while the relationship is still a good one, rather than afterwards.
Yes. AS 08.18.011 says a person may not submit a bid or work as a contractor until that person has been issued a certificate of registration. The bid is regulated, not only the work.
The Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing states that handyman contractors may perform work on projects with an aggregate contract of $10,000 or less for each project.
AS 08.18.071 sets $25,000 for a general contractor, $20,000 for a general contractor with a residential endorsement working exclusively on residential projects, $10,000 for a mechanical or specialty contractor or home inspector, and $5,000 at the handyman level.
The sources do not explain it, but three Division documents carry the same ordering, so it is not a typographical error. It does mean a homeowner is standing behind the smaller of the two figures.
It is conditioned on paying amounts that may be adjudged against the applicant by reason of negligent or improper work or breach of contract. The Division points aggrieved homeowners to it.
The state-by-state source prints a dash for Alaska. An empty cell is not a figure, so nothing is published in its place.