Arkansas / Public Defender
Role across Arkansas
Public Defender
Carry out the duties of this position in support of the agency's public mission.
236 people hold the Public Defender role across 1 department in Arkansas, with a median total compensation of $59,625. Among 3 jurisdictions where this role is reported, Arkansas ranks #3 by median pay.
- Employees
- 236
- Median pay
- $59,625
- Departments
- 1
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #3 of 3
Compared with the local labor market
Public Defender pay vs. Arkansas
Across all employers in Arkansas, the median wage for Lawyers — about 3,430 people — is $98,880. Arkansas pays a median base salary of $59,625 for this role, 40% below that figure — about the 17th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Arkansas sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Lawyers across every employer in Arkansas, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Arkansas’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Lawyers — about 754,500 people — is $159,670. Arkansas’s median base salary is 63% below that national figure, below the 10th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Arkansas range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 235 of 236 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Arkansas is $59,625, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Public Defender pay in other jurisdictions
Where Public Defenders are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Public Defenderroles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.