Ark. Code Ann. § 11-4-203 (2026)

As used in this subchapter:

1. [Repealed.]
2. “Employ” means to suffer or to permit to work;
3. “Employee” means any individual employed by an employer but shall not include:
   1. Any individual employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity or as an outside commission-paid salesperson who customarily performs his or her services away from his or her employer's premises taking orders for goods or services;
   2. Any student performing services for any school, college, or university in which he or she is enrolled and is regularly attending classes;
   3. Any individual employed by the United States;
   4. Any individual engaged in the activities of any educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization in which the employer-employee relationship does not in fact exist or in which the services are rendered to the organizations gratuitously;
   5. Any bona fide independent contractor;
   6. Any individual employed by an agricultural employer who did not use more than five hundred (500) man-days of agricultural labor in any calendar quarter of the preceding calendar year;
   7. The parent, spouse, child, or other member of an agricultural employer's immediate family;
   8. An individual who:
      1. Is employed as a hand-harvest laborer and is paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation that has been, and is customarily and generally recognized as having been, paid on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment;
      2. Commutes daily from his or her permanent residence to the farm on which he or she is so employed; and
      3. Has been employed in agriculture less than thirteen (13) weeks during the preceding calendar year;
   9. A migrant who:
      1. Is sixteen (16) years of age or under and is employed as a hand-harvest laborer;
      2. Is paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation that has been, and is customarily and generally recognized as having been, paid on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment;
      3. Is employed on the same farm as his or her parents; and
      4. Is paid the same piece-rate as employees over sixteen (16) years of age are paid on the same farm;
   10. Any employee principally engaged in the range production of livestock;
   11. Any employee employed in planting or tending trees, cruising, surveying, or felling timber or in preparing or transporting logs or other forestry products to the mill, processing plants, or railroad or other transportation terminal if the number of employees employed by his or her employer in the forestry or lumbering operations does not exceed eight (8);
   12. An employee employed by a nonprofit recreational or educational camp that does not operate for more than seven (7) months in any calendar year;
   13. A nonprofit child welfare agency employee who serves as a houseparent who is:
       1. Directly involved in caring for children who reside in residential facilities of the nonprofit child welfare agency and who are orphans, in foster care, abused, neglected, abandoned, homeless, in need of supervision, or otherwise in crisis situations that lead to out-of-home placements; and
       2. Compensated at an annual rate of not less than thirteen thousand dollars ($13,000) or compensated at an annual rate of not less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) if the employee resides in the residential facility and receives board and lodging at no cost;
   14. An employee employed in connection with the publication of a weekly, semiweekly, or daily newspaper with a circulation:
       1. Of less than four thousand (4,000); and
       2. The major part of which is within the county in which the newspaper is published or counties contiguous to the county in which the newspaper is published;
   15. An employee employed on a casual basis in domestic service employment to provide:
       1. Babysitting services; or
       2. Companionship services for individuals who are unable to care for themselves because of age or infirmity;
   16. An employee engaged in the delivery of newspapers to retail subscribers;
   17. A home worker engaged in:
       1. Making wreaths composed principally of natural holly, pine, cedar, or other evergreens; and
       2. Harvesting natural holly, pine, cedar, and other evergreens used in making such wreaths; or
   18. 1. An individual employed by an establishment that is an organized camp or a religious or nonprofit educational conference center if:
          1. The organized camp or a religious or nonprofit educational conference center does not operate for more than seven (7) months in a calendar year; or
          2. During the preceding calendar year, the average receipts of the organized camp or a religious or nonprofit educational conference center for any six (6) months of the preceding calendar year were not more than thirty-three and one-third percent (33 1/3%) of the average receipts of the organized camp or a religious or nonprofit educational conference center for the other six (6) months of the preceding calendar year.
       2. 1. This subdivision (3)(R) is effective retroactively as of January 1, 2006.
          2. The retroactive effect of this subdivision (3)(R) does not impose liability on the Division of Labor or on an employee to repay damages, back wages, civil money penalties, or other moneys collected or paid by the division or received by an employee;
4. 1. “Employer” means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, the State of Arkansas, any political subdivision of the state, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee.
   2. “Employer” shall not include any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee for any work week in which fewer than four (4) employees are employed;
5. “Gratuities” means voluntary monetary contributions received by an employee from a guest, patron, or customer for services rendered;
6. “Independent contractor” means any individual who contracts to perform certain work away from the premises of his or her employer, uses his or her own methods to accomplish the work, and is subject to the control of the employer only as to the result of his or her work;
7. “Man-day” means any day during any portion of which an employee performs any agricultural labor. Any individual otherwise excluded as an employee under subdivision (3)(I) of this section shall be considered an employee in computing man-days of agricultural labor;
8. “Occupation” means any occupation, service, trade, business, industry, or branch or group of industries or employment or class of employment in which employees are gainfully employed; and
9. “Wage” means compensation due to an employee by reason of his or her employment, payable in legal tender of the United States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value, subject to such deductions, charges, or allowances as may be permitted by this subchapter or by rules of the Director of the Division of Labor under this subchapter.

History. Acts 1968 (1st Ex. Sess.), No. 25, § 2; 1977, No. 345, § 1; 1979, No. 1095, § 1; 1983, No. 698, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 81-320; Acts 1989, No. 360, § 1; 1999, No. 1369, § 1; 2001, No. 1423, § 1; 2003, No. 212, § 1; Acts 2006 (1st Ex. Sess.), No. 15, § 1; 2006 (1st Ex. Sess.), No. 16, § 1; 2007, No. 545, § 1; 2013, No. 457, § 1; 2013, No. 1128, § 1; 2019, No. 315, § 755; 2019, No. 910, §§ 5307, 5308.

Amendments. The 2013 amendment by No. 457 added (3)(R).

The 2013 amendment by No. 1128, in (3)(B), substituted “Any student” for “Students,” “he or she is” for “they are,” and “is” for “are.”

The 2019 amendment by No. 315 substituted “rules” for “regulations” in (9).

The 2019 amendment by No. 910 repealed (1); and, in (3)(R)(ii) (b) , substituted “Division of Labor” for “Department of Labor” and “division” for “department”.

Effective Dates. Acts 2006 (1st Ex. Sess.), Nos. 15 and 16, § 8, provide: “This act shall become effective on October 1, 2006.”