No, the hardest-working city is not New York City, LA, or even Chicago, for better or worse it’s our lovely Washington, D.C. that takes home that claim to fame. This new study by WalletHub measured 116 big cities across the country and compared them to determine which can be considered the hardest-working using 11 unique metrics and a complex data measuring system, but sure enough, this study, which just concluded earlier this month, found D.C. to be at the top of the list.
Why is Washington, D.C. the hardest-working city in America?
The title was given to D.C. for several factors, as you can imagine, but amongst the most impactful when choosing the top spot was the fact that roughly 64% of Washingtonians tend to leave their vacation time unused, that D.C. residents on average work about the third-most hours per week compared to other residents of other cities, and that on average we commute over 30 minutes to and from work, which was factored into the length of our average workdays (thanks to D.C. have the second worst traffic in the country). Additionally, another factor to D.C.’s high ranking was that over 30% of D.C. residents are members of local volunteer groups or organizations, meaning that their time spent ‘working’ carries over into their free time as well!
When viewing the main findings of the study, all the metrics were compiled to a score out of 100 and then each city was given a score that reflected how “hard-working” that city is. The data collected from each city was then ranked in order of the highest score, or hardest-working, first, which meant that D.C. ranked #1 with a total score of 76.97.
How the total score was calculated
The 100-point total score was pulled from the combination of two scores from two separate groups of quantitatively measured factors: Direct Work Factors, which amounted to 80 total points, and Indirect Work Factors, which amounted to the remaining 20 points. The specifics of the factors for each group can be seen below:
Direct Work Factors
- Average workweek hour
- Employment rate
- Share of households where no adults work
- Share of workers leaving vacation time unused
- Share of engaged workers
- Rate of idle youth
Indirect Work Factors
- Average commute time
- Share of workers with multiple jobs
- Average volunteer hours per resident
- Share of residents who participate in local groups or organizations
- Average leisure time spent per day
What other cities ranked in the top 5 hardest-working cities in America?
At number one, was D.C. with a total score of 76.97, the number two hardest-working city in America was Irving, Texas, which had a score of 76.39, the third-ranked city was Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a score of 76.15, the fourth was Virginia Beach, Virginia, which scored 75.79, and finally at #5 most hard-working city in America was Anchorage, Alaska, which scored 75.55!
Surprisingly, the next closest major city on the list was San Francisco at #8 with a score of 74.67, following them was Denver at #9 and Austin, Texas at #10. Funny enough, the three major cities we mentioned earlier, New York, LA, and Chicago ranked at #99, #8-, and #87 respectively putting them well below the average according to the study’s data.
See the complete study, methodology, and data here on WalletHub’s site.