Analysis: Arizona among worst states for working moms
May 5, 2015, 11:33 AM | Updated: 11:33 am
Arizona falls in the bottom 10 for friendliness to working mothers, according to a financial website’s state-by-state analysis.
WalletHub rated the Grand Canyon State 40th out of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
The site used 12 metrics, grouped into three larger categories, to concoct the rankings.
Arizona fared well enough in child care, ranked 28th, and even better for professional opportunities, at No. 20.
But the biggest contributor to the overall ranking was work-life balance — Arizona came in 47th.
Factored in to that category were parental leave, length of the average woman’s workday and women’s average commute time.
Other categories included day care systems, child care costs, gender pay gap and female-to-male executive ratio.
WalletHub noted women make up roughly half of the American workforce, but that they still earn about three-quarters as much as men do and, on average, have less upward mobility.
The site reported:
Progress, it would seem, is taking shape at different rates across the country. 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.
Vermont came in first. Washington was the only western state to crack the top 10, coming in sixth.
