In honor of Mother's Day, the personal finance website WalletHub decided to rank "The Best and Worst States for Working Moms" and Vermont placed third on the list, behind Oregon and the District of Columbia. Maine and New York rounded out the top five. New Hampshire ranked 14th.
"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 – are far from uniform as well," the study states. "So, in order to help ease the burden on an inherently underappreciated segment of the population, WalletHub analyzed state and local dynamics across nine metrics in order to identify the Best & Worst States for Working Moms."
Although Vermont didn't come out on top of any of the individual metrics, the state still placed third in the overall ranking. Here's how Vermont fared in the breakdown:
- 34th – Day Care Quality
- 37th – Child Care Costs
- 3rd – Access to Pediatric Services
- 7th – Public School Quality
- 24th – Gender Pay Gap
- 8th – Ratio of Female to Male Executives
- 12th – Parental Leave Policy
- 8th – Length of the Average Woman’s Workday
- 15th – Average Commute Time
For organizational purposes, WalletHub grouped these nine metrics into three categories: child care, professional opportunities and work-life balance. Vermont ranked 15th in the child care category, 13th for professional opportunities and fourth for work-life balance.
WalletHub's rankings are based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware of America, U.S. News & World Report, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Partnership for Women & Families.
