Dental Assistant salary in Arkansas: $42,830 median.
Pay for dental assistants across Arkansas at every point of the range, against the U.S., the states it borders and the state's metro areas.
Dental Assistants in Arkansas earned a median annual wage of $42,830 in May 2025, compared with $48,070 nationally, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey (SOC 31-9091). That is 11% below the U.S. median; the middle half of Arkansas workers in this occupation earned between $36,790 and $46,730.
- Arkansas median
- $42,830
- $20.59 an hour
- U.S. median
- $48,070
- -11% in Arkansas
- Rank among states
- 46 of 50
- states with a published median
- Employed in Arkansas
- 2,950
- location quotient 0.91
Advice For a pay conversation in Arkansas, the state median ($42,830) is the sourced middle of the market; the 25th–75th percentile band ($36,790–$46,730) is where half of the state's workers in this occupation fall. Experience, employer, metro and specialty move individual offers within and beyond that band.
Arkansas vs the U.S. at every point of the range
Data Annual wages at five points of the pay distribution, SOC 31-9091, BLS May 2025.
| Point in the pay range | Arkansas | United States | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $35,060 | $37,130 | -6% |
| 25th percentile | $36,790 | $44,340 | -17% |
| Median | $42,830 | $48,070 | -11% |
| 75th percentile | $46,730 | $58,090 | -20% |
| 90th percentile | $48,330 | $62,250 | -22% |
Data The local difference is larger at the top of the range than at the bottom (-6% at the 10th percentile, -22% at the 90th). Locally, the 90th-percentile wage is 1.38 times the 10th-percentile wage, versus 1.68 times nationally, so pay is less spread out than it is nationally.
How common the job is in Arkansas
Data BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of state employment divided by its share of U.S. employment.
Data The BLS location quotient for this occupation in Arkansas is 0.91, so it is close to the national concentration (1.00 = the same share as nationally). That is about 2.3 jobs per 1,000 jobs in the state.
Arkansas vs the states it borders
Data Same occupation, same BLS release. A higher median elsewhere is not a job offer; cost of living differs.
Where in Arkansas it pays most
Data Metropolitan statistical areas that include part of the state and pass TryHired's reliability rule (500+ jobs, employment PRSE ≤ 20%, mean-wage PRSE ≤ 10%, a published median and a non-degenerate wage distribution). Each is the whole BLS metro area, not a city.
Where dental assistants earn the highest medians
Data Highest state medians among the 50 of the 50 states and DC with a published median, BLS May 2025. Arkansas ranks 46.
See every state on the national Dental Assistant salary page.
More for Dental Assistants
What the job is, skills, tools, pay and related roles.
Open →SalaryDental Assistant salaryPay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.
Open →How to becomeDental Assistant how to becomeEducation, training and the skills to build first.
Open →ResumeDental Assistant resumeKeywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.
Open →Interview questionsDental Assistant interview questionsQuestions with what they test, plus practice mode.
Open →Career changeDental Assistant career changeWhere these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.
Open →Free toolCheck your resumeParsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.
Open →Similar careers to explore
How this page is built
BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for Arkansas and national estimates for SOC 31-9091 (Dental Assistants). The pay ladder compares the same five published percentiles; the difference column is the local value minus the U.S. value, divided by the U.S. value. Ranks compare published state medians across the 50 states and DC. Employment counts people working in the occupation (excluding the self-employed), not job openings. BLS publishes sampling error for these estimates: the employment estimate has a relative standard error of 5.4%. Lower is more precise; BLS does not publish a standard error for the median itself. Searches this page answers include “dental assistant salary arkansas”, “how much do dental assistants make in arkansas”, “how much does a dental assistant make in arkansas” (Ahrefs, U.S.).
- Cost of living: wages are not adjusted for local prices.
- Pay at a specific employer, in one city, or for self-employed workers.
- Local outlook: BLS projections are national.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state and national estimates (2018 SOC), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.