STUDY: Montana NOT Among Hardest Working States…I Disagree!

Let me start by saying I believe Montanas are some of the hardest-working people in the U.S.

I didn't mean to sound like a schmoozing politician, but after typing that out I definitely feel like one. 

All the farmers, ranchers and blue-collar guys and gals are hard-working folks and I don't care what any study says. Now, that being said a recent study conducted by WalletHub looked at the hardest-working states in the U.S. The financial website utilized two factors. Direct work factors and indirect work factors.

Direct work factors look at average workweek hours, employment rate and workers leaving PTO unused.

Indirect work factors are things like average commute time, workers with multiple jobs and average leisure time spent per day. 

Before we get to the rankings, here are a couple of stats that jumped out to me.

• Americans work on average 1,811 hours per year. 
• Americans failed to use 55% of their PTO last year

Always take your PTO, folks. If you have paid time off don't skip it because you're worried about missing out on work. We all need a break.

Ok, now the rankings

Number one on the list is no surprise to me. It's our neighbor to the east, it's North Dakota. I lived in North Dakota for two years and they are similar to Montana in the sense of a lot of blue-collar workers - farmers, ranchers, folks in the oil fields. The rest of the top 5 makes sense too. No. Dak. is followed by Alaska, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

This is the kicker... Montana checks in number 25. Montana was 20 points behind North Dakota on the grading scale. It's hard to believe, and I'm not sure I do. Montanans are more hard-working than 25th, right?

Montana ranked high in the indirect work factors. The Treasure State was slated number 1 in the highest share of workers with multiple jobs. On average, 8 percent of Montanans work multiple jobs. That stat checks out, I have multiple jobs and I'm sure a lot of you do as well.

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The states that work the least hardest are New Mexico, New York, West Virginia, Michigan and Connecticut.

What say you? Is Montana the 25th-ranked state in the nation for hardest-workers?