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 85 percent of what men made in 2018 and have far less upward mobility, as evidenced by the fact that only 4.8 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 16 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	Massachusetts	66.87	1	30	1
2	Rhode Island	61.96	11	8	2
3	Connecticut	61.06	3	10	5
4	Vermont	60.92	2	2	9
5	District of Columbia	58.92	8	6	6
6	New Jersey	56.02	7	25	8
7	Minnesota	55.36	6	3	16
8	Wisconsin	54.02	13	11	10
9	New Hampshire	53.54	4	4	34
10	Washington	52.99	21	45	3
11	Maine	51.67	23	14	12
12	North Dakota	50.88	5	24	23
13	Iowa	49.86	17	12	17
14	Delaware	48.81	10	5	41
15	Kansas	48.68	18	17	19
16	Colorado	48.24	16	9	27
17	Nebraska	48.08	30	1	26
18	Oregon	47.78	40	32	4
19	Montana	47.68	28	28	13
20	New York	47.50	20	39	14
21	Ohio	46.24	27	19	20
22	Indiana	46.00	14	31	28
23	South Dakota	45.71	26	16	24
24	Maryland	45.57	15	7	50
25	Virginia	45.56	9	27	48
26	Tennessee	44.02	12	29	46
27	Wyoming	43.84	19	42	21
28	North Carolina	43.07	33	15	37
29	Michigan	43.05	36	21	31
30	Florida	42.88	24	22	44
31	Missouri	42.76	31	18	38
32	Illinois	42.53	22	44	25
33	Hawaii	41.85	34	41	18
34	Kentucky	41.79	25	37	36
35	New Mexico	41.65	41	13	30
36	Alaska	40.91	44	20	22
37	Pennsylvania	40.77	35	34	35
38	Utah	40.28	37	51	11
39	Oklahoma	39.93	29	40	39
40	California	39.50	49	47	7
41	Arkansas	38.93	47	23	29
42	Arizona	38.57	39	38	33
43	Texas	38.57	32	35	49
44	West Virginia	37.67	43	36	32
45	Georgia	36.55	38	33	51
46	Nevada	34.15	48	26	45
47	Mississippi	33.86	42	43	47
48	Idaho	33.11	51	46	15
49	South Carolina	32.51	46	49	42
50	Alabama	31.65	45	50	43
51	Louisiana	29.00	50	48	40

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 do you believe the new congress is to enact a program for federal paid family leave during this session?
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 16 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 (~7.50 Points)
  Note: This metric measures women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s.
• Ratio of Female Executives to Male Executives: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
• Median Women’s Salary: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
  Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living.
• Share of Working Women Living with Economic Security: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on the Basic Economic Security Tables (BEST) Index, which measures how much income working adults of different family types need to be economically secure. Economic security means having “enough income to meet…basic monthly expenses—such as housing, food, transportation and child care expenses—and save for emergencies and retirement.”
• Share of Families in Poverty: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
  Note: “Families” include single mothers with children aged 0 to 17 years.
• Female Unemployment Rate: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
• Gender-Representation Gap in Different Economic Sectors: Full Weight (~3.75 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)

Videos for News Use:

• YouTube (for web embedding National)
• YouTube (for web embedding Massachusetts)
• Raw files (for editing into clips)

 
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, Institute for Women's Policy Research, National Partnership for Women & Families and WalletHub research.

Image: nazarovsergey / Shutterstock.com

Community Discussion

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@kari_kokenge

May 15, 2019

I find this so interesting. I am a retired financial professional, and I experienced the gender pay gap in my state (Washington) while I was working, but I didn’t know that my state ranked 49th!!! I understand Utah, but for a progressive blue state, why is the gap so horrible here in Washington?

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