State file — Arkansas
Severance itself is almost never required by law — but the paper around your exit is. In Arkansas, three state rules shape your negotiation: when your last paycheck must arrive, whether a non-compete can follow you to your next job, and what notice a layoff required. If you are 40 or older, the federal clocks (21 or 45 days, plus 7 days to change your mind after signing) apply on top of everything here.
Federal rule only - no Arkansas state law giving time to consider or revoke a severance/settlement agreement was found.
Run the deadline checker — it counts the federal clock and Arkansas's clock together and gives you the dates.
Enforceable by statute only if ancillary to employment, the employer has a protectable business interest (trade secrets, IP, customer lists/goodwill, confidential information, training, other valuable data), and the restraint is no greater than necessary. A post-termination restriction of 2 years is presumptively reasonable as to time. Courts must reform overbroad covenants rather than void them. No earnings threshold. 2025 change: SB 139 (2025) amended Arkansas law to prohibit/void non-competes restricting a physician's right to practice - effective about Aug. 3, 2025 (90 days after session adjournment) per secondary reporting.
Why it matters at the exit table: a non-compete you sign on the way out can matter more than the severance check. If the clause would block your next job, narrowing it is one of the most common — and most granted — negotiation asks.
CONFLICT FLAGGED - see source. Current code summaries state: an employer that discharges an employee must pay all wages due by the next regular payday, and owes double the wages due if it fails to pay within 7 days of that next regular payday. Older/other summaries describe a demand-based rule (pay within 7 days after the employee demands payment) and the historic railroad-only text of the same section.
Unused vacation: No statute treating accrued vacation as wages at separation was found; payout governed by employer policy (secondary sources).
Final pay is owed whether or not you sign anything. If the date passes without your money, your state labor agency takes these complaints — and many states add penalties for every day of delay.
Arkansas has no state layoff-notice law of its own, so the federal WARN Act is the rule: employers with 100+ workers generally owe 60 days' notice of a plant closing or mass layoff (50+ jobs at one site).
Notice failures have their own remedies (back pay for each day of missed notice, in the federal law's case) — separate from the severance agreement, and worth a question if your layoff was large and sudden.
Included in the $49 SeveranceDecoded Kit
One payment. Yours to keep. Works for any severance agreement, any state.
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