Now in its fifth anniversary, Oxfam’s annual index highlights rapidly growing inequality among states.
Ahead of Labor Day, Oxfam America released its annual Best States to Work Index, a robust database and interactive map that measures policies supporting working families in all 50 states, plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. The Index tracks 26 policies in three areas—wages, worker protections, and rights to organize—that seek to capture which states have stepped in to fill the gaps left by federal inaction to support workers and their families.
“Millions of working families across the U.S. are stuck in cyclical patterns of poverty because of the federal government’s failure to provide essential policies like access to paid leave and livable wages,” said Dr. Kaitlyn Henderson, senior research adviser with Oxfam America’s US Domestic Policy Program and lead author of the Index. “But the impacts of this inaction are not affecting all communities equally. At the end of the day, it comes down to where these workers live and what jobs they have, and it’s clear that these realities are exacerbating inequality in the U.S., especially on lines of gender, race, and class.”
This year, California earns the top spot in the Index as the “best” state for workers, followed closely by Oregon (#2), the District of Columbia (#3), New York (#4), and Washington (#5). On the other hand, North Carolina lands at the very bottom of the Index as the “worst” state, followed by Mississippi (#51),...
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