Study: S.C. one of the worst states for working moms

Listen to this article

A new study shows South Carolina is one of the worst states for working moms.

WalletHub.com compared the attractiveness of each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia for working mothers based on 15 metrics, including median women’s salary, unemployment rates for women and day-care quality.

South Carolina beat out only Nevada, Alabama, Louisiana and Idaho. The state’s rankings in each category included:

• 44th – day-care quality
• 40th – pediatricians per capita
• 39th – gender pay gap (women’s earnings as % of men’s)
• 49th – ratio of female executives to male executives
• 40th – median women’s salary (adjusted for cost of living)
• 19th – unemployment rate for women
• 40th – parental-leave policy score
• 32nd – average length of women’s workday (in hours)
• 43rd – percentage of single-mom families in poverty

South Carolina ranked 38th in child care, 45th in professional opportunities and 44th in work-life balance.

The study showed that women make up nearly half of the work population in the United States, and nearly 70% of those working women have children. Yet women earned 82% of what men made in 2017, the study found, and made up 5.2% of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies’ CEOs.