Arkansas Workers’ Comp Waiver: Eligibility, Filing, and Tradeoffs

An Arkansas workers’ comp waiver is available only to people with an ownership or officer role in the business: corporate officers, sole proprietors, partners, LLC members, members of a professional association, and self-employed employers who own and operate their own business. Qualifying individuals opt out by filing a notarized Application for Certificate of Non-Coverage (Form A) with the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and paying a $50 fee.¹² Regular employees cannot waive, and any waiver signed by an employee is void under Arkansas Code 11-9-108(a).

Who Qualifies to Waive Coverage

Section 11-9-108(b)(1) limits the waiver option to six categories of people connected to the business by ownership or officer status:

Officers of a corporation, regardless of company size.
Sole proprietors operating an unincorporated business.
Partners in a general or limited partnership.
Members of a limited liability company.
Members of a professional association organized under Arkansas law.
Self-employed employers who own and operate their own business and employ others.

Two conditions apply across the categories. The person must own and operate the business, so a passive investor with no operational role is a weaker fit than an active owner. And subcontractors are explicitly excluded from waiver eligibility, which matters most in construction where subcontracting is common.¹

If you are a W-2 employee with no ownership stake and no officer position, you cannot waive. An employer who asks you to sign one is handing you a form that has no legal effect.

How to File the Waiver

The waiver runs through the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission. Complete the Application for Certificate of Non-Coverage, known as Form A, available on the Commission’s website. The affidavit portion must be notarized before submission.²

You can submit the application in two ways:

By mail, sending the completed form, the notarized affidavit, and a $50 check or money order to the address printed on the form.
Online through the Commission’s payment portal. You still need the completed form with a notarized affidavit before you start. If you include an email address and phone number, the Commission will send an expedited electronic copy of the Certificate of Non-Coverage once it is approved.²

Keep the Certificate of Non-Coverage on file. It is your proof that the opt-out was properly documented, which comes up during insurance audits and after any workplace injury.

What a Waiver Does Not Do

A waiver removes you from the system. It does not remove the business from the system. Arkansas Code 11-9-108(b)(2) states directly that even when waivers reduce the headcount below the usual three-employee threshold, the employer must still carry workers’ compensation coverage for the remaining employees.¹

Consider an LLC with two members and two employees. Four people total. If both members file waivers, two employees remain. The usual rule exempts businesses with fewer than three employees,³ but Section 11-9-108(b)(2) overrides that result when the reduction comes from waivers. The two remaining employees stay covered.

Construction tightens things further. Under Section 11-9-102, the threshold drops below three employees in several situations:

Building or repair work: coverage required with two or more employees.
Contractors who subcontract any part of the work: coverage required with even one employee.
Subcontractors: coverage required with one or more employees.⁴

Combine those lower thresholds with the rule that subcontractors cannot waive, and the construction trades have far fewer waiver options than most other industries.

What You Give Up by Waiving

Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system that pays medical bills and replaces part of lost income after a workplace injury without the injured person having to prove anyone was at fault. Waiving the coverage means waiving that no-fault benefit for yourself.

If you are hurt on the job after waiving, your options narrow. You could pursue a personal injury suit against a negligent third party, but that requires proving fault, carries no guarantee of recovery, and can take months or years. Many owners who waive buy private health insurance and disability coverage to fill the gap. Those premiums cost money, and skipping that step leaves you absorbing the full financial impact of a serious injury on your own.

Medicare adds a wrinkle for owners who are Medicare-eligible. Under the Medicare Secondary Payer rules, Medicare pays secondary to workers’ compensation. An employer carrying its own risk after a waiver can be treated as self-insured under federal rules, and if Medicare pays for a workplace injury that workers’ comp would otherwise have covered, reimbursement questions can follow.⁵

When a Waiver Is Not the Right Tool

Some workers do not need a waiver because workers’ compensation never applied to them. Section 11-9-102 places several employment types outside the system entirely, including domestic workers in private homes, people hired for home gardening, repair, or remodeling, agricultural farm labor, employees of qualifying nonprofit religious, charitable, or relief organizations, newspaper vendors and distributors, certain licensed real estate agents who meet the IRS definition of a qualified real estate agent, and workers covered by federal compensation systems such as railroad and maritime employees.⁴

If you fall into one of these categories, Form A is not something you need to file. The waiver process is built for people the system would otherwise cover.

If you are unsure whether coverage applies in your situation, the Commission’s Information Officer and its Operations and Compliance Division can answer coverage questions directly.³

1
Justia. Arkansas Code 11-9-108 – Waiver of Compensation Void – Exception
2
Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing. Certificates of Non-Coverage
3
Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing. Basic Facts
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 11-9-102 – Definitions
5
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Liability Insurance, No-Fault Insurance and Workers’ Compensation Recovery Process