Delaware is best state for workers: study

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Delaware is the best state for workers
in the United States, getting high marks for job opportunities,
job quality and workplace fairness in a study published on
Tuesday.

New Hampshire, Minnesota, Vermont and Iowa also scored high
in the Work Environment Index (WEI), developed by researchers
at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Louisiana ranked last, while Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi,
South Carolina and Utah also got poor marks.

The index ranked working environments in terms of average
pay, benefits, job opportunities, equal treatment of men and
women and ability to unionize.

It is the first index to evaluate worker climate instead of
business climate on a state-by-state basis, its authors said.

There is a consistent link between the quality of a state’s
environment for workers and its economic health, the authors
said, and high-ranking states have faster growth and lower
poverty rates than those at the bottom of the list.