With Father’s Day approaching and over 93 percent of dads with young kids working today, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads.
In order to help dads balance their dual role as parent and provider, we compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across 22 key indicators of friendliness toward working dads. The data set ranges from average length of work day for males to child-care costs to share of men in good or better health.
| Best States for Working Dads | Worst States for Working Dads | |||
| 1 | Massachusetts | 42 | Georgia | |
| 2 | Connecticut | 43 | Alabama | |
| 3 | New Jersey | 44 | Arkansas | |
| 4 | Vermont | 45 | Idaho | |
| 5 | Minnesota | 46 | South Carolina | |
| 6 | District of Columbia | 47 | Nevada | |
| 7 | Rhode Island | 48 | West Virginia | |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 49 | Mississippi | |
| 9 | Washington | 50 | New Mexico | |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 51 | Louisiana |
Best vs. Worst
- North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate for dads with kids aged 0 to 17, 1.29 percent, which is 3.5 times lower than in Alaska, the highest at 4.55 percent.
- Massachusetts has the lowest male uninsured rate, 3.80 percent, which is five times lower than in Texas, the highest at 19.00 percent.
- Mississippi has the lowest average annual early child-care costs (adjusted for median family* income), 4.53 percent, which is 3.3 times lower than in Nebraska, the highest at 14.79 percent.
- North Dakota has the lowest share of men who couldn’t afford to see a doctor in the past year because of costs, 7.07 percent, which is 2.3 times lower than in Louisiana, the highest at 16.29 percent.
*Refers to families with kids aged 0 to 17 and in which the father is present
