12 Hardest-Working States in America: 2022

Americans are hard workers who put in more hours than their counterparts in many other industrialized countries, according to a new report from the personal finance website WalletHub.

U.S. workers put in an average of 1,791 hours per year as of 2021, WalletHub said, citing data from World Economic Forum.

That is 442 hours a year more than Germans work, according to WalletHub. However, it’s 337 fewer than Mexicans work.

Not only do Americans work long hours but many of them also don’t take full advantage of their paid time off, WalletHub noted.

American workers forfeited an average of 4.6 paid days off last year, WalletHub said. Although leaving vacation time on the table will seem strange to some people, there are many reasons why workers opt to do just that, according to WalletHub.

For example, some American workers are afraid that, if they take time off, they’ll appear less dedicated to their jobs than other employees at their companies, risking being laid off, WalletHub noted.

Other American workers fear falling behind on their work or are worried that the normal workflows at their jobs will not be able to function without them being there, WalletHub said.

To find where the hardest-working Americans live, WalletHub compared all 50 states across two key dimensions: direct work factors and indirect work factors.

Researchers then evaluated those dimensions using 10 metrics, ranging from average workweek hours to share of workers with multiple jobs to annual volunteer hours per resident.

They graded each metric on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the hardest-working, then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank the states.

Alaskans work the highest number of workweek hours, at 41, followed by workers in Wyoming and North Dakota, tied for number two. In comparison, the fewest average hours are clocked in by workers in Utah, followed by Rhode Island, Oregon and Vermont, all three tied, according to WalletHub. Alaska’s 41 hours were 11% longer than Utah’s 37, it said.

A Few Key Findings

New York has the longest average commute time, at 34 minutes, two times longer than in South Dakota, the state with the shortest at 17 minutes.
Mississippi has the highest share of workers leaving vacation time unused, 34.70%, 1.6 times higher than Ohio, the state with the lowest at 21.90%.
South Dakota has the highest share of workers with multiple jobs, 20%, 2.3 times higher than New Mexico, the state with the lowest at 3.60%.

See the gallery above for the 12 hardest-working states in America, along with a few more notable employment-related statistics from WalletHub.