Being a working mom is hard enough. It’s even tougher in the South, report shows
Southern states rank among the worst in the nation for working moms, according to a new analysis.
The latest findings from personal finance website WalletHub put Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and others on the bottom rung when it comes to favorable conditions for working mothers — especially those working long hours for low wages.
“Even during non-pandemic times, working moms face an uphill battle in the workplace, as their average hourly wage is only 85 percent of what men make ...” the report notes. “Such obvious inequality brings up not just financial questions but also deeply ingrained social issues. For instance, should women have to choose between career and family?”
Comparing factors from child-care costs and women’s median salary to work-life balance and professional opportunities, researchers ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on how working mothers fare. Here’s how the data broke down:
Louisiana
Working women have it worst here, according to WalletHub.
Louisiana ranked worst in the nation, landing at the bottom of the list with an overall score of 27. The Pelican State also came in near-last when it came to child-care costs and professional opportunities, which weighed metrics such as the gender wage gap and the ratio of male executives to female executives.
Work-life balance was slightly better, with Louisiana coming in at No. 38.
Mississippi
Mississippi also fell far below other states, with the WalletHub report ranking it as the second-worst state for working mothers.
It earned an overall score of 29 and stands at 47th in the nation for work-life balance. Dr. Silvia Vilches, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University, told WalletHub that achieving this balance can be especially hard for low-wage workers due to their often “precarious employment and shift work.”
“Women, who do the ‘second shift’ at home, also face challenges,” Vilches added. “However, for all families, time is at a premium, few families can afford to have a stay-at-home parent and quality of life.”
Though it came in last for professional opportunities, the Magnolia State had among the lowest child-care costs in the country, the report shows.
Alabama
The report ranks Alabama 49th in the nation for working mothers, giving it a score of 31. It also ranked 47th in both the child care and professional opportunities categories, signaling much room for improvement.
While the focus has been on how to best support mothers, George Washington University professor Dr. Paul M. Swiercz argues that their families deserve just as much aid and assistance.
“Actually, it is working parents and grandparents and siblings and dad, etc. that all need more sophisticated policies and programming,” Swiercz, who works in the university’s department of management, told WalletHub. “We know what we need; what is missing is the will to act and the resources to make it happen. That said, we especially need a) affordable pre-school, and b) sick-day policies to help parents take care of their children.”
Across the South
Some Southern states fared better than others in their treatment of working moms. The report put Texas in the No. 40 spot while Arkansas and Georgia ranked 41 and 42, respectively.
South Carolina took the No. 48 spot while North Carolina came in at 31, according to the report. Florida was 37th.
To reach its findings, WalletHub “compared state dynamics across 17 key metrics” including school system quality, median women’s salary, female unemployment rate, parental leave policy and others. Researchers then graded those metrics on a 100-point scale to “determine each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score,” according to its website.
A score of 100 signified states with the best conditions for working mothers.
Nationally, Massachusetts took the top spot with an overall score of 68. Minnesota was second, scoring 62. Other states with the most favorable conditions for working moms include Vermont, Connecticut, D.C. and New Jersey, rankings show.
The report also used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware of America, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and others to come up with its rankings, according to WalletHub.