Asphalt Cost Calculator for Arkansas - Free 2026 Cost Estimates

Arkansas Asphalt Labor Costs — Verified from BLS OEWS (2025)

Every figure on this page is a published U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics value. Last verified 2026-06-20.

In Arkansas, paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators — the core trade for asphalt work — earn a mean wage of $21.18/hr ($44,060 per year) in the 2025 BLS OEWS release. That is 25% below the national average (national mean $59,000 per year). Arkansas employs about 490 paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators statewide. Related trades that price into a typical asphalt job include construction laborers ($39,250/yr), first-line supervisors of construction trades ($65,690/yr). Because labor is the largest variable cost on most asphalt projects, these published state wage levels are the biggest single reason asphalt costs differ between Arkansas and other states. Every figure here is a mean value published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and is refreshed automatically when BLS releases new OEWS data.

Across the trades that touch a typical asphalt job in Arkansas, BLS reports mean wages of paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators at $44,060 per year ($21.18/hr); construction laborers at $39,250 per year ($18.87/hr); first-line supervisors of construction trades at $65,690 per year ($31.58/hr). The spread between first-line supervisors of construction trades ($65,690) and construction laborers ($39,250) reflects differences in skill, certification, and supervisory responsibility on Arkansas job sites, and it is why a detailed, line-item estimate beats a single blended rate when you are budgeting asphalt work.

Half of Arkansas paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators earn less than the median of $44,010 per year — below the $44,060 mean, which a smaller number of higher earners pulls upward. For budgeting, the median is often the more realistic figure for routine asphalt crews. BLS counts roughly 490 paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators, 10,650 construction laborers, 6,590 first-line supervisors of construction trades employed across Arkansas, a measure of how deep the local asphalt-trade labor pool is and how much competition for crews you can expect when scheduling work.

When you budget a asphalt job in Arkansas, treat these BLS wage levels as the labor-rate floor: a crew's billed rate adds overhead, insurance, equipment, and margin on top of the $21.18/hr mean wage shown above. Because Arkansas's paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators wages sit 25% below the national average, a asphalt quote that comes in far below these published rates is worth a second look — labor that cheap usually signals a different scope, materials, or crew experience. Use the calculator on this page to combine these Arkansas labor rates with your project's material quantities for a complete estimate.

Wages are statewide means published by BLS and reflect labor cost only — not the total installed cost of a project. Use the calculator below for a full materials-and-labor estimate, and always obtain written bids from licensed Arkansas contractors.