CT Ranked Third Best State for Working Moms
/Despite ranking 37th in professional opportunities for women and 12th in child care, Connecticut has been ranked as the third best state for working moms on the strength of a number one ranking in “work-life balance," according to a new analysis from the financial website WalletHub.
With Mother’s Day just days away, the WalletHub analysis revealed 2016’s Best & Worst States for Working Moms.
The top five states were Vermont, Minnesota, Connecticut, North Dakota and Massachusetts. Vermont also ranked first in child care, and was the top-ranked state (after D.C.) in professional opportunities. At the bottom of the list, considered the worst states for working moms, were Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama and Nevada.
The website also noted that “women still earn only $0.79 for every dollar that men make and have far less upward mobility, as evidenced by the fact that only 4 percent of S&P 500 companies’ chief executives are female.”
WalletHub’s analysts compared the attractiveness of each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to a working mother, using 13 key metrics such as median women’s salary, female unemployment rate and day-care quality.
Connecticut’s ranking across the categories included in the survey ranked from second in parental leave policy to 24th in the ratio of female to male executives. The state’s rankings by category, in the WalletHub analysis:
- 2nd – Parental Leave Policy
- 6th – % of Single-Mom Families in Poverty
- 6th – Access to Pediatric Services
- 8th – Length of Average Woman’s Workday
- 9th – WalletHub’s “Best School Systems” Ranking
- 24th – Ratio of Female Executives to Male Executives
The Child Care metrics included Day-Care Quality, Child-Care Costs, Access to Pediatric Services, and WalletHub’s “Best School Systems” Ranking. The Professional Opportunities category included Gender Pay Gap, Ratio of Female Executives to Male Executives, Median Women’s Salary, Percentage of Families in Poverty, Female Unemployment Rate, and Gender-Representation Gap in Different Economic Sectors. The Work-Life Balance category included Parental Leave Policy, Length of the Average Woman’s Work Week, and Women’s Average Commute Time.
Data used to create these rankings, according to WalletHub, 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.
