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By

Jennifer Sauer, AARP Research

Offering a retirement savings plan is important to small business owners in Arkansas.  It helps small businesses stay competitive with larger employers and provides workers with an

opportunity to improve their financial security in retirement.  But retirement savings plans can be costly and complicated, making it hard for small businesses owners in Arkansas to offer

such a plan to their employees.  As a result, many workers will be faced with relying on their Social Security when they retire. 

To help with this situation, AARP is supporting states in their efforts to create and implement a state retirement savings option that would enable small business owners and their employees

to better prepare for retirement. These privately managed savings options would be easy for employers to set up with no costs and low risks to the employer. Arkansas Saves, now being

considered in the state legislature, is one such program.

This new AARP survey of 504 small business owners across the state of Arkansas shows solid support (79 percent) for a privately managed, ready-to-go retirement savings option for small

business owners that would enable them to offer workers a way to save for the future.  And nearly all (88 percent) agree that state lawmakers should support a bill that makes it easier for

small business owners to access a retirement savings option for their employees and themselves.  

AARP commissioned Alan Newman Research (ANR) to field this 2024 Arkansas Small Business Owner Survey between October 2 and October 25, 2024. Interviews were conducted by cell and landline

phone among 504 small business owners or decision makers about employee benefits at companies with 1–100 additional employees. The sample is weighted by business size (i.e., number of

employees), industry, and region/county according to 2021 Economic Census statistics.

For more information, please contact Jennifer Sauer at [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact External Relations at [email protected].

Suggested Citation:

Sauer, Jennifer. Survey of Small Business Owners in Arkansas on Retirement Savings. Washington, DC: AARP Research, March 2025. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00893.001

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