2018’s Best & Worst States for Working Moms

Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and more than 70 percent of moms with young children are working. Yet women earned only 82 percent of what men made in 2017 and have far less upward mobility, as evidenced by the fact that only 5.2 percent of S&P 500 companies’ chief executives are female.

Such obvious inequality sparks debates about gender roles in a shifting socioeconomic environment. Workplace inequality brings up not just financial questions but also deeply ingrained social issues. For instance, should women have to choose between career and family?

The real question, however, is what we’re doing about this fundamental problem. Progress appears to be taking shape at different rates across the nation. Not only do parental leave policies and other legal support systems vary by state, but the quality of infrastructure — from cost-effective day care to public schools — is also far from uniform as well.

So, in order to help ease the burden on an underappreciated segment of the population, WalletHub compared state dynamics across 15 key metrics to identify the Best & Worst States for Working Moms. A complete breakdown of our findings, as well as expert commentary and a detailed methodology, can be found below.

Main Findings

 

Best and Worst States for Working Moms

Overall Rank (1=Best)	State	Total Score	‘Child Care’ Rank	‘Professional Opportunities’ Rank	‘Work-Life Balance’ Rank
1	Vermont	64.79	3	1	5
2	Minnesota	61.93	1	4	9
3	Massachusetts	58.29	2	16	14
4	District of Columbia	57.80	9	2	8
5	Connecticut	57.56	4	46	3
6	Rhode Island	57.40	19	24	1
7	Maine	54.00	14	6	10
8	New Jersey	53.56	7	36	13
9	Delaware	52.96	5	5	35
10	New York	51.95	26	17	7
11	North Dakota	51.07	8	21	22
12	Oregon	51.01	43	10	4
13	California	50.73	47	19	2
14	Wisconsin	50.59	12	35	16
15	Indiana	49.37	10	14	31
16	Montana	48.74	33	13	12
17	Colorado	48.59	22	9	21
18	Illinois	48.03	13	39	17
19	New Hampshire	47.81	6	42	33
20	Kansas	46.79	18	26	23
21	Iowa	46.78	16	37	19
22	Nebraska	46.58	34	11	18
23	Washington	46.11	27	40	15
24	Hawaii	45.02	39	30	11
25	North Carolina	44.83	17	22	38
26	Florida	44.59	20	7	42
27	Kentucky	44.45	25	15	36
28	Utah	44.15	30	51	6
29	Maryland	44.13	21	3	50
30	Virginia	44.11	11	28	47
31	Ohio	43.72	24	38	26
32	Tennessee	42.60	23	33	37
33	Oklahoma	41.61	15	43	40
34	South Dakota	40.99	41	20	32
35	Arizona	40.46	35	8	46
36	Michigan	40.37	36	32	34
37	New Mexico	40.36	46	12	29
38	Missouri	40.27	31	27	41
39	Pennsylvania	39.72	28	44	39
40	Arkansas	39.68	44	23	25
41	Alaska	39.42	45	25	27
42	Texas	39.14	29	31	49
43	Wyoming	38.75	37	47	28
44	Georgia	38.40	32	18	51
45	West Virginia	37.49	48	34	30
46	Mississippi	35.49	40	41	45
47	South Carolina	34.71	38	45	44
48	Nevada	33.94	49	29	48
49	Alabama	32.12	42	50	43
50	Louisiana	31.74	50	49	24
51	Idaho	31.04	51	48	20

Red States vs. Blue States

Ask the Experts: Improving Conditions for Working Moms

For added insight into how to address workplace gender inequality, especially for working mothers, we turned to a panel of experts. They range from university professors who research gender roles and economics to the authors of some of the most popular career and women’s blogs. Click on the experts’ profiles to read their bios and responses to the following key questions:

1. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life?
2. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? What are the easiest?
3. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers?
4. How likely are Ivanka Trump’s policies related to child care and paid family leave to be enacted?
5. In evaluating the best states for working moms, what are the top five indicators?

 

Methodology

In order to determine the best and worst states for working moms, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Child Care, 2) Professional Opportunities and 3) Work-Life Balance.

We evaluated those dimensions using 15 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for working moms.

We then determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

Child Care – Total Points: 40

• Day-Care Quality: Double Weight (~10.00 Points)
• Child-Care Costs: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
  Note: This metric was adjusted for the median women’s salary.
• Pediatricians per Capita: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
• School-System Quality: Double Weight (~10.00 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on WalletHub’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems ranking.
• Share of Nationally Accredited Child Care Centers: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
• Number of Childcare Workers per Total Number of Children: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
  Note: Childcare workers attend to the basic needs of children, such as dressing, bathing, feeding, and overseeing play. They may help younger children prepare for kindergarten or assist older children with homework.

Professional Opportunities – Total Points: 30

• Gender Pay Gap: Double Weight (~8.57 Points)
  Note: This metric measures women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s.
• Ratio of Female Executives to Male Executives: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
• Median Women’s Salary: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
  Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living.
• Share of Families in Poverty: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
  Note: “Families” include single mothers with children aged 0 to 17.
• Female Unemployment Rate: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
• Gender-Representation Gap in Different Economic Sectors: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
  Note: This metric measures the absolute difference between the share of female employees and male employees.

Work-Life Balance – Total Points: 30

• Parental-Leave Policy Score: Double Weight (~15.00 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on the report card from Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help Expecting and New Parents.
• Average Length of a Woman’s Work Week (in Hours): Full Weight (~7.50 Points)
• Women’s Average Commute Time (in Minutes): Full Weight (~7.50 Points)

 

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware® of America, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Council for Community and Economic Research, National Partnership for Women & Families and WalletHub research.

Community Discussion

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J UR @julianna_uresch

May 13, 2018

I think this study is while very interesting - not reflecting at all the single mothers and in a way not truly realistic. They are looking into the the median income of a woman, but I bet they are calculating the "more" income of the partner into the total income. And with single - I'm mean the single mothers who don't get spousal support - and those do exist! As an example - in MA - Franklin Area- how is a single mother suppose to finance child care that costs $2000 a month for 5 day 8-5? Maternity leave is 8 weeks unpaid... And even couples are struggling with this.... So I'm not sure a realistic this study is.

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