Arkansas Paystub Generator

Reading an Arkansas pay stub, line by line

An Arkansas pay stub carries exactly one state line — state income tax — and it got smaller in 2026. A three-day special session in May cut the top rate from 3.9% to 3.7%, backdated to January 1, and the Department of Finance and Administration re-issued the withholding formula on May 29. Here is what each line means:

AR State Income Tax ("AR SIT", "AR W/H"). Arkansas taxes single filers in five brackets from 0% to 3.7%: nothing on the first $5,599 of net taxable income, 2% to $11,199, 3% to $15,999, 3.4% to $26,399, and 3.7% on everything above. Employers run the same formula you would use on a return: annualize your pay, subtract the $2,470 standard deduction, apply the brackets, then subtract a $29 credit for every exemption on your Form AR4EC (yourself, your spouse, each dependent). No AR4EC on file means zero exemptions — and a bigger deduction than you owe.

The $29 credit, not a personal exemption. Most states let you deduct a personal exemption before tax is figured. Arkansas instead knocks $29 off the tax itself for each exemption you claim — so one extra dependent on the AR4EC lowers your annual withholding by exactly $29, about $1.12 per biweekly check, regardless of your income.

Low-income line 5. If you tick "I qualify for the low-income tax rates" on the AR4EC, your employer switches to the Low Income tables: a single filer has $0 withheld up to $281.60 a week ($14,643 a year), with a reduced table up to $17,500. Above that the regular formula applies.

Bonuses and commissions: flat 3.7%. DFA's employer instructions direct a flat 3.7% on supplemental wages — the same as the top rate — and note it "could in some cases be over-withholding". Vacation pay paid on top of regular wages is treated the same way. Any excess comes back when you file.

What you will NOT see: a local or city tax line (Ark. Code § 26-73-103 bars every county and municipality from taxing income), a state disability or paid-leave deduction (Arkansas has neither), or an unemployment contribution — Arkansas UI is employer-paid on a $7,000 wage base, and the employee share is $0. Pre-tax 401(k), 403(b), 457 and Section 125 amounts are excluded from Arkansas wages before the formula runs.

Plus the federal lines on every US stub: federal income tax, Social Security (6.2% up to $184,500 in 2026), and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% on wages over $200,000).

Arkansas paycheck facts — 2026

What you actually take home in Arkansas (2026 estimates)

Estimated for a single filer with one exemption taking the standard deduction, including federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and Arkansas state income tax (2026 brackets after the $2,470 standard deduction, minus the $29 personal credit). There is nothing else to subtract — Arkansas has no local tax and no employee-paid state programs:

Where the money goes at $60,000: Arkansas state tax is about $1,732 — 2.9% of gross, roughly $67 per biweekly check. The stub tracks the return closely because Arkansas withholding uses the statutory brackets, deduction and credit rather than a rough approximation. Federal income tax and FICA take the other 16%.

The 2026 cut in your pocket: the same $60,000 filer paid about $1,795 at the 2025 rate of 3.9% — 2026 saves roughly $62. Anyone withheld at 3.9% from January until DFA's May 29 table update gets that difference back at filing.

Above $97,600 the low brackets vanish: the bracket adjustment phases out between $94,701 and $97,600 of net taxable income, and from $97,601 the tax is simply 3.7% of everything minus $79.90 — the Upper Income Table.

Methodology: 2026 federal brackets and $16,100 standard deduction (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32), FICA per SSA, Arkansas Ark. Code Ann. § 26-51-201 brackets as amended by SB1/HB1001 of the 2026 First Extraordinary Session, after the $2,470 standard deduction and $29 personal credit (DFA Withholding Tax Formula effective January 1, 2026). Estimates only — your withholding depends on your W-4/AR4EC, the low-income election, credits, and pre-tax benefits.

What Arkansas jobs pay (BLS, May 2025)

Arkansas's median hourly wage across all occupations is $20.98 — 14% below the national median of $24.51. Lower pay meets a light state tax: an Arkansas registered nurse at the state median ($78,940) has about $2,400 of state tax withheld for the year, and a waiter at the $11.86 median with tips earns 4.5 times the $2.63 tipped cash wage the employer must pay before tips.

Arkansas's workforce in numbers

• 3.1 million residents, civilian labor force of 1.46 million, unemployment 4.0% (Census 2025 estimate; BLS, July 2026 preliminary)
• 244,688 self-employed (nonemployer) businesses (Census, 2023) — about one for every 13 residents, and 3.5 times the number of businesses with employees
• 1.1 million people on employer payrolls at 70,452 establishments, earning $60.9 billion a year; 52% of those establishments have fewer than 5 employees (Census County Business Patterns, 2023)
• Mean annual wage: $54,890 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)

Arkansas pay rules — the answers people actually need

Final paycheck if you were fired: the next regular payday. Ark. Code Ann. § 11-4-405, as rewritten by Act 853 of 2019, requires an employer that discharges an employee to pay all wages due by the next regular payday — and if payment is still missing seven days after that payday, the employer owes double the wages due. The seven days is the double-damages trigger, not the deadline; older guidance describing "seven days after demand" is the pre-2019 statute.

Final paycheck if you quit: no Arkansas statute sets a separate deadline. Your wages are due on the next regular payday under the ordinary pay-frequency rule and are collectable as a wage claim. The Division of Labor's Labor Standards Section investigates claims of $2,000 or less; larger claims, or claims by workers earning over $50,000 a year, go to court. Unpaid vacation, bonus, or severance claims need a copy of the company policy promising the pay.

Pay frequency: corporations must pay at least semimonthly (§ 11-4-401). A corporation grossing $500,000 or more a year may pay FLSA-exempt managers and executives earning over $25,000 monthly. Violations are a misdemeanor with a $50–$500 fine per offense. The statute binds corporations only — sole proprietorships, partnerships, and non-corporate LLCs have no state pay-frequency mandate.

Is a pay stub required? No. No Arkansas statute or rule requires employers to give you a wage statement. The Minimum Wage and Overtime Rules (Rule 010.14-102) require employers with four or more employees to keep three years of payroll records — hours each day and week, regular rate, straight-time and overtime earnings, every addition or deduction and its nature, total wages, pay date and period — and make them accessible to the Division. That is a recordkeeping duty, not a delivery duty; you can ask for your record, and an employer's stub is a business convention rather than a mandated form.

Minimum wage: $11.00 an hour for employers with four or more employees, the final step of Initiated Act 5 of 2018 (voters), in force since January 1, 2021, with no scheduled increase and no inflation indexing. Tipped employees get a $2.63 cash wage with a tip credit of up to $3.62, and must reach $11.00 with tips (Ark. Code § 11-4-212). Approved full-time students may be paid 85% of the minimum. Employers with fewer than four employees fall outside the state Act (federal $7.25 applies where the FLSA does). Overtime is 1.5× after 40 hours a week; hours not worked, such as holidays and sick days, do not count toward 40.

Border City Exemption. If you live in Texarkana, Arkansas — or in Texarkana, Texas and work in Arkansas — your wages are exempt from Arkansas income tax: file Form AR-TX-4EC with your employer and the state line disappears from your stub. Nonresidents working entirely outside Arkansas are not withheld either; active-duty military pay is fully exempt.

Local taxes and city minimum wages in Arkansas (2026)

There is nothing local on an Arkansas paycheck. Ark. Code Ann. § 26-73-103(a)(2)(B) states that a county, municipality, or other local government "shall not levy a tax on income" — so Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Springdale, Jonesboro, and Pulaski, Benton, and Washington counties have no income or payroll tax. Local sales taxes exist but never touch wages. If your payroll software prints a "local" line for Arkansas, the amount should be zero.

The same goes for minimum wage: no Arkansas city or county may set its own floor, and none does. $11.00 applies from Bentonville to Texarkana for every employer with four or more employees. The one place geography changes your stub is Texarkana, where the Border City Exemption removes Arkansas income tax from residents' wages.

A full-time job at $11.00 grosses $22,880 a year — above the $17,500 top of the single low-income table, so the regular formula applies: about $377 of Arkansas tax for the year after the $29 credit, or 1.6% of gross.

How Arkansas compares with its neighbors (take-home on $60,000, 2026 est.)

Arkansas sits between two no-income-tax neighbors — Texas and Tennessee — and its $1,732 state bite at $60,000 is the whole gap: about $67 per biweekly check. Against the taxing neighbors the ranking flips: Arkansas's 3.7% top rate is now below Missouri's, Mississippi's, and Louisiana's, and every one of those states, unlike Arkansas, has kept a personal exemption or a larger deduction to offset a higher rate.

(The Oklahoma figure is a directional estimate pending that page's full data workup.)

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