A new report finds fewer than one in four Arkansas residents have access to paid family leave through their employer. That’s despite a 2023 state law which allows certain insurance companies to offer family leave insurance to certain companies.
Chandra Childers, Ph.D., senior policy and economic analyst with the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), wrote the report. As Little Rock Public Radio and KUAF in Fayetteville, Arkansas report, Childers says offering comprehensive family and paid-leave programs can help boost maternal and infant health outcomes.
As Dr. Childers explains, “There’s a range of studies, not only to be able to take for bonding which is really important for both. But it’s also to take care of their health. It ranges from, you know, being able to make sure that they’re getting their doctors’ appointments, their vaccinations. There’s a range of health benefits that we see through this. And it’s lower mortality across the board.”
EARN describes itself as “a nationwide network of [56] research, policy, and advocacy organizations fighting, state by state, for an economy that works for everyone.” EARN is a key part of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank with a stated mission of countering “rising inequality, low wages and weak benefits for working people, slower economic growth, unacceptable employment conditions and a widening racial wage gap.”
In the case of Arkansas' 2023 state law – Act 84 – the measure allows certain insurers to offer family leave insurance. But this is only voluntary on the part of employers to offer employees, with most workers lacking access to this kind of insurance. This voluntary distinction is one of the factors that brought in EARN and its parent organization EPI to the region take a closer look at this trend, seen often in southern states.
In an April 1, 2026 blog post, Dr. Childers wrote “Workers lose when lawmakers pass the buck to private insurers,” when states adopt voluntary private insurance models of paid leave. Arkansas is one of those eight states which Childers mentioned. Texas also joined the list of eight in 2023, as well. Meanwhile, 13 states and Washington, D.C. have implemented comprehensive, universal Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs.
According to the latest government figures, only 14% of U.S. civilian workers have access to paid family leave. The 1993 Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) does offer 12 weeks of job-protected medical leave. But it is unpaid and covers roughly 60% of the workforce. Although, as the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has pointed out, evidence has suggested many eligible employees cannot afford to go without pay.
