Dive Brief:
- The best state for working moms for the second straight year is Vermont, with Minnesota, Connecticut, North Dakota and Massachusetts rounding out the top 5 in 2016, according to an analysis from WalletHub.
- WalletHub's analysts rated states on broad categories of child care, professional opportunities and work-life balance, comparing them by using dynamics across 13 key metrics (within the three main categories) to come away with its 2016 Best & Worst States for Working Moms list.
- And the worst places for moms to work (or find work)? Dead last is Nevada, followed by Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alaska. In all, the analysis included all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Dive Insight:
According to WalletHub, data used to create the rankings came 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.
In compiling the scores, the analysts identified those 13 relevant metrics, and each metric — factors such as daycare quality, parental leave policies and gender pay gap — was given a value between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the most favorable conditions for working moms. It then calculated the overall score for each state using the weighted average across all metrics and ranked the states accordingly.
Apart from the rankings, WalletHub asked 16 experts for comments to specific questions, including: What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? And what needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? HR leaders may want to take a look at those responses, because they offer an interesting range of ideas on how to make the workplace a more hospitable place for working mothers.
