The pandemic changed a lot about daily life, including work. To keep employees safe, many businesses pivoted to remote and hybrid work arrangements, allowing their employees to work from home. Although the pandemic is largely behind us, around 12% of employees across the country are still fully remote, and 28% have a hybrid schedule split between their homes and offices.
With remote work still very much the norm in many industries, WalletHub has released a study ranking the best states to work from home. Washington came in ninth place, behind Delaware, Utah and Maryland in the first three spots, respectively. Montana, North Dakota and Alaska were at the opposite end of these rankings, perhaps unsurprisingly due to the manual industries that they support.
Washington tied with Vermont as the state with the fifth-highest share of its population working from home, behind Washington, D.C., Colorado, Oregon and Utah, in the top four spots. Mississippi had the lowest share of its population working from home.
Washington ranked third for household internet access, behind only Massachusetts and Connecticut. Another winning factor is the state’s cost of electricity—third-lowest in the nation, after North Dakota and Nebraska.
The rankings for the study were ultimately divided into two categories, “work environment” and “living environment.” Metrics within the work environment category included share of potential telecommuters and cyber security. Living environment metrics factored in access to a wired low-price internet plan, internet cost, median square footage for average number of people per household, and average home square footage, among others.
In total, Washington was 11th for work environment and 19th for living environment, with a total score of 60.75. Delaware, the top state, was 2nd for work environment and 11th for living environment, with a total score of 66.15.
With these results in mind, perhaps Washingtonians will enjoy the commute from bed to desk even a little bit more than they already do.
This post was based on a study from WalletHub.