KUAF and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation are taking a closer look at how Arkansans are making ends meet in today’s economy. ALICE, or asset limited, income constrained while employed, households are the focus of a recent initiative, and we’re presenting stories that explore that category.
Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis recently spoke with the director of narrative strategy for WRF for a broad overview of what it means to be in an Arkansas ALICE household. And now we’re taking a closer look at the numbers. Jack spoke with Stephanie Hoopes, the national director for United For ALICE, over Zoom last month and got a detailed analysis of Arkansas’ current economic landscape across regions. Here’s Jack with more.
Arkansas can be a bit of an enigma when it comes to economic analysis. The Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that in 2024, the cost of living in the state was about 13% lower than the national average, which is the lowest of any state. But Stephanie Hoopes, national director for United For ALICE, says that’s not the full picture.
“When digging into understanding ALICE, you see some lower-cost housing and child care. So you think, gosh, maybe there won’t be as many ALICE households. But the challenge is it’s the match between costs and wages.”
Again, ALICE households are asset limited and income constrained while employed. This population is above the federal poverty level but still struggles to survive on income alone. Jobs pay less in Arkansas. The state minimum wage has sat at about $11 an hour since 2021, and a single adult needed $13.64 an hour in 2024. Over 40% of full-time workers did not earn enough to support a household of one adult and one school-aged child. So those low costs aren’t supported by wages, adding to the number of ALICE households in the state.
“So out of the state’s 1.2 million households, we find that 16% are below the federal poverty level, like our official measure of financial hardship. Another 27% earn above that poverty level, but not enough to afford just the bare bones of what we call the Household Survival Budget. So just the basic housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, a small technology line. And then ALICE pays taxes. So when you add that all together, we’ve got 43% of households across the state struggling week to week just to afford those basics.”
Costs and income change across regions, too. Data shows that the statewide average cost of living is $71,000 for a family of four with two kids in child care. Hoopes says that rises to $83,000 in northwestern Benton County. There, 29% of households fall below the ALICE Threshold, or the income line needed to afford the basics.
But then hardship rates are higher elsewhere in the state. For example, the cost of living is lowest in the Delta. Yet in that region’s Lee County, nearly 70% of households fall below the ALICE Threshold, which is the highest share in the state. Hoopes says that a tool on unitedforalice.org, called the Economic Viability Dashboard, can provide some illumination.
“But you can see locations where there are jobs that help support those basics, where there’s housing that’s affordable and then where there are community resources. And what we found is that they’re not always in the same location. So as we look across the state, some areas have good jobs, but there isn’t affordable housing there. And some places like the Delta region, there may be housing that’s affordable, but there aren’t good jobs there.”
She references the dashboard. It’s a map of the country and states that highlights different counties. Maps are categorized into different tabs: work, housing, community resources and gaps. On the work tab, a darker color means a larger percent of jobs that support the Survival Budget. And on the housing tab, it means more affordable housing.
“So here, showing different parts of the state under work. So where the darker yellow is, the more jobs there are that can support that Survival Budget. So you can see it’s nice and dark in Benton County, and then much lighter down in southeast Arkansas. And then you can switch to housing, the next tab on the dashboard. And you can see the darkest regions are where housing is affordable. Not quite the same locations as those good jobs. And you see housing especially expensive in Little Rock.”
Zooming in to Northwest Arkansas, even neighboring counties can hold different stories. Washington and Benton counties score differently on most metrics despite their proximity. Nearly 40% of households in Washington County are below the ALICE Threshold. But again, in Benton County, it’s more like 30%.
“Here’s Benton County with some really good jobs, and we know some of the major companies that are there and providing that. And yet right next door in Washington County, less so. And yet when you then switch to housing, there’s those differences.”
Someone trying to work in Bentonville might have to live in a county or two away where housing’s more affordable.
“And if you want to get ahead, you might even have to live further away. And yet you have added transportation costs. So some of the tough trade-offs that families and workers need to make, but I think it’s also important for communities to be thinking about these dimensions. If we want to attract folks, maybe we need different types of housing. If we want to attract folks, maybe we need to make sure that while we’re attracting jobs, they’re not just any jobs. They’re jobs that can support covering those basics in our community.”
Hoopes says that having such in-depth data makes talking to policymakers from municipal to national about rectifying these disparities a bit easier.
“And I think it’s one of the big value that we bring to communities that are trying to do better is we have this local data that can really help you understand and break down your geography so that you’re not lumping all these things together. And those averages are not misleading, that you can see the variation. And on other parts of our website, we have data by ZIP code, by county subdivision. So you really can dig in and look at those differences.
“And then we also have tools like an action planner where you can say, ‘Hey, we want to work on more affordable housing. What are ways that we can do that?’ And we share some promising practices from other organizations, other communities across the country. And they might not be perfect for Arkansas because each community knows its own strengths and resources, but it might give you some good ideas. It might give you a place to start.”
Hoopes says free tools like the Economic Viability Dashboard may also help communities quantify some of the present challenges.
“Like how many affordable housing units do you need? One of my favorite data points under the housing is how many folks are living in rental housing that are paying more than if they were owners. Across Arkansas, more than 26,000 people live in rental units and pay more than they would for a mortgage on a home they own. So if you could get those 26,000 households into homeownership, not only would they be paying less each month, they would be starting to build equity.
“And so that’s what I mean. Like, here’s a number that you can work towards and build programs and target folks to really move the needle in a way that would benefit everybody in your community. When ALICE does better, we all do better.”
Individual employers also have a lot of power to help ALICE households in a community. Hoopes says that when this economic data is brought to their attention, big changes can occur.
“It is really awesome when you talk to an employer who says suddenly, ‘Oh, right, I have ALICE in my workforce, and there are things I can do to invest in those workers that they will be more productive. They will want to stay with my company, and my business then will be more productive. I won’t have that turnover.’
“And so doing things from adjusting scheduling to coincide with child care, to make it easier for that worker to drop off their kid and be on time to work. It doesn’t cost anybody any money. It can make a difference. Things like increasing the wages, ‘I didn’t realize what it cost in this county. We need to do a salary adjustment.’ Those are amazing.”
She says politicians are a group that’s especially important to show ALICE data to.
“ALICE lives in every congressional district. We have a great tool on our website called the Legislative District Tool. And you can go into Arkansas, and you can select your congressional district or your state districts, the upper and lower chamber, and then dig into your district.
“And it’s really powerful when you go to your elected officials and say, ‘ALICE lives in your district. And here is some data that brings home the fact that ALICE is in your district. ALICE votes in your district.’ And so suddenly the politicians are willing to listen and care about ALICE in another way, because it is local. It is their community.”
Some of those policies for Arkansas include creating a state earned income tax credit or smoothing the benefits cliff, so a raise doesn’t mean losing health care. You can dive into this data yourself and find more resources at unitedforalice.org. And stay tuned to Ozarks at Large for more stories about ALICE households and how they survive in the Natural State.
For now, Hoopes recommends people look past the headlines and into their own communities to learn more about who ALICE is.
“We’re living in a tough era right now, and affordability is a buzzword that everyone’s talking about. So while I feel like we’re making great progress on people understanding ALICE and recognizing ALICE in their communities and families and neighborhoods, many folks recognize that they have been ALICE or currently are ALICE. So great progress there. But the number of ALICE households has continued to tick up over the last decade. And so we have not moved the needle on that yet. And so just a lot more work to do.”
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
