Arkansas restaurant labor laws

Arkansas: overtime after 40h a week, $11.00 minimum wage, night limits for minors. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in Arkansas, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated October 17, 2026

Start with Arkansas' rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

Overtime

Daily: No separate rule*
Weekly: after 40h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: No separate rule*
Eating period: No separate rule*
Minimum wage: $11.00since 2026-07-01
Default time zone: America/Chicago

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

Public holidays · 11

A public holiday carries no statutory premium for a private employer under federal law, so these are shown as observed days. Eleven federal holidays are assigned to every state, with a few recognized state holidays added; a state's own full list is not complete here.

Christmas DayDecember 25
Columbus Daysecond Monday in October
Independence DayJuly 4
JuneteenthJune 19
Labor Dayfirst Monday in September
Memorial Daylast Monday in May
Martin Luther King Jr. Daythird Monday in January
New Year's DayJanuary 1
Presidents' Daythird Monday in February
Thanksgivingfourth Thursday in November
Veterans DayNovember 11

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for Arkansas. United States figures come from the Department of Labor — its state table as published on 15 July 2025, or its federal rules — and are corrected from the state's own source where the table is wrong. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked. Confirm with the state before relying on them.

Under 14
Not permitted
Federal floor. 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural work.
Ages 14 to 15
Non-school day
8h
Week
48h
Days a week
6
Not between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
9 p.m. before a non-school day. No more than 6 days in a week, checked here in the workspace's week. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.
Ages 16 to 17
Not between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., on school nights
Sixteen-year-olds only; Arkansas sets nothing for seventeen. Also no more than ten consecutive hours, or ten in any twenty-four, and at sixteen no more than 6 days in a week, which is not checked here because this band includes seventeen. The evening limit binds only on a night before a school day. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.

Source: dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules · dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 40 hours in a week, priced as you build, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses it.
Workers under 18: the minimum age, the hours in a day and in a week, and the evening limit, read from a birth date and marked as errors, not warnings.
A minor's days of work in a week at ages 14 to 15, against the limit of 6, with every location's shifts counted together.
11 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with Arkansas' rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (FLSA) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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