These Are The 10 Hardest Working States In America

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America has been known as the land of opportunity for as long as I can remember. It’s the one place in the world where if you bare down and work your nose to the grindstone, you can make a better life for your family and yourself.

And while all Americans are hardworking, there’s a certain part of the country that takes the Puritan work ethic to the extreme — the great Northeast.

Who’s the leader of this work around the clock ethos? That would be Maryland which takes the top honors for the hardest working state in the Union. People work so hard there they manage to make getting to work a job

So what other states burn the midnight oil to bring home a large piece of bacon? You’re going to have to get to the office early and stay late on Fridays to beat out these states for a promotion:

With the exception of Hawaii and Alaska, this list reflects two ingrained American stereotypes — the industrial Northeast and the workhorse cowboy of the plains.

So listen up New Mexico as we explain how start to explain how we created this ranking, you could learn some thing from the rest of the country.

How We Determined The Hardest Working States In The Good Ole U S of A

Like all problems here at Zippia, we start with the data to answer the hard questions. Some might even consider us the hardest working data-crunchers this side of the Mississippi.

In this particular case, we went to the latest version of the American Community Survey looking for answers. As luck would have it, the Census Bureau just released the 2009-2014 5-Yr Estimate which would make this analysis the first of it’s kind with the new data.

After scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of criteria, we settled on this set for each State:

Average hours worked
Average commute time
Workers per household (Employed labor force divided by the number households)
Labor force participation rate
Adults with a college degree

Our thinking went something along the lines of if you are spent the many years getting a degree, are actively seeking employment, work a ton of hours when employed, and spend forever getting to work, you get the Zippia hardworking stamp of approval.

After we got the data for all 50 states, we ranked each state from 1 to 50 for each of the criteria with 1 being the “hardest working”.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each to create a hardworking index.

Finally, we crowned the state with the lowest hard working index the “Hardest Working State In America”. And, at the end of the day, Maryland had it’s hard work pay off.

Read the detailed chart below to learn a bit more about why each state ranked where it did and a recap for Maryland.

Why Maryland Took The Top Spot

Maryland won this one in pretty convincing fashion. In an attempt to score points with the boss, it ranked significantly better than average on every single criteria.

Maryland shines in what most people consider the worst part of their day — the commute to work. Maryland ranked number 1 overall with an average commute of 32 minutes. Compared to the average commute time in North Dakota (The shortest on the list), Marylanders spend an extra 4 days getting to and from work each year.

So if you’d relax your work ethic just a tad and move to North Dakota, you’d get four more vacation days each year. And by the looks of things, you need them.

Detailed Table of Hardest Working States

State	Overall Rank	Average Commute To Work (In Min)	Average Hours Worked
Maryland	1	32	38.8
Virginia	2	28	39.0
New Jersey	3	31	38.5
New Hampshire	4	27	38.3
Colorado	5	25	38.7
Hawaii	6	26	38.5
Massachusetts	7	28	37.6
Alaska	8	19	42.0
Texas	9	25	39.8
North Dakota	10	17	40.2
Minnesota	11	23	37.9
Connecticut	12	25	37.9
Nebraska	12	18	39.1
Illinois	14	28	38.2
South Dakota	15	17	39.5
California	16	28	37.8
New York	17	32	38.4
Kansas	18	19	38.9
Washington	19	26	38.0
Georgia	20	27	38.9
Utah	20	22	36.8
Wyoming	20	18	40.4
Iowa	23	19	38.5
Vermont	24	22	37.6
North Carolina	25	24	38.8
Delaware	26	25	38.0
Rhode Island	27	24	37.1
Wisconsin	28	22	38.0
Nevada	29	24	38.3
Louisiana	30	25	39.9
Pennsylvania	31	26	38.1
Maine	32	24	37.9
Montana	33	18	38.2
Missouri	34	23	38.4
Florida	35	26	38.3
Indiana	36	23	38.3
Oklahoma	37	21	39.6
Arizona	38	25	38.3
South Carolina	39	24	38.5
Tennessee	40	24	38.7
West Virginia	41	26	38.9
Mississippi	42	24	39.3
Idaho	43	20	37.9
Ohio	44	23	37.9
Oregon	44	23	37.0
Alabama	46	24	38.8
Arkansas	47	21	39.2
Michigan	48	24	37.5
Kentucky	49	23	38.5
New Mexico	50	22	38.2

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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