Alaskan businesses can no longer pay workers with disabilities less than the state's $9.84 minimum hourly wage. The Alaska Department of Labor last week repealed a decades-old regulation that allowed employers to get an exemption to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage if their disability limits their ability to get a job. Alaska's move was a surprising win for disability rights activists in a conservative state, making it the first red state to ban the practice. New Hampshire was the first state to do so in 2015, followed by Maryland in 2016. Paying sub-minimum wages to Americans with disabilities has been legal under federal law since 1938.