Here’s How Friendly New York Is For Working Dads

Way back in the day, in the 1960s, 75 percent of dads were the breadwinners and mom stayed home with the kids and kept the house running. But America doesn’t look like it did nearly 60 years ago.

Two-thirds of American households depend on two incomes, and though most of today’s dads no longer fit the stereotype of the married breadwinner and disciplinarian, it’s better to be a working father in some states than others, according to a new study.

New York ranked 17th in the personal finance website WalletHub’s ranking of the Best and Worst States for Working Dads. The data reflected in the report, which uses U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, includes the average length of the work day for men, the cost of child care, and the share of men in good or better health.

Connecticut, Minnesota, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and Vermont topped the list of states that are friendly to working dads. West Virginia is the worst state for working dads, according to the ranking, followed by Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Idaho.

Nearly 93 percent of dads with kids younger than 18 are employed, according to Bureau of Labor statistics. In states with robust economic opportunity and high quality of life, it’s easier to balance work and family responsibilities, the study found.

To determine the best states for dads who are both parent and provider, WalletHub compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across 20 key indicators of friendliness toward working fathers. Read more on the methodology.

The Empire State's scores were wildly divergent in the four main areas the best and worst states for working dads study looked at — economic and social well-being, work-life balance, child-care costs, and health, ranking 43rd, 8th, 27th and 13th, respectively.

New York would have scored higher if it hadn't been ranked one of the worst states for dad's economic and social well-being. Here's how WalletHub measured that:

Economic & Social Well-Being – Total Points: 30

• Median Family Income (Adjusted for Cost of Living): Double Weight (~12.00 Points) Note: “Family” refers to those with kids aged 0 to 17 and in which the father is present.
• Unemployment Rate for Dads with Kids Aged 0 to 17: Full Weight (~6.00 Points)
• Share of Kids Aged 0 to 17 (with Dad Present) Living in Poverty: Full Weight (~6.00 Points)
• Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate for Men: Full Weight (~6.00 Points) Note: This metric measures the percentage of male high school students who graduated on time.

New York ranked in the middle on child-care costs, too — which just shows that child-care costs are crazy everywhere.

The issues working fathers face are in many ways similar to the same issues women faced in the mid-20th century, when domestic responsibilities were mainly their domain, according to Steven D. Farrough, an associate professor of sociology at Assumption College.

“No doubt, mothers continue to do much more on average in the domestic sphere when compared to fathers, but working fathers have narrowed the gap,” Farrough said in a statement accompanying the study. “Research shows they are more involved in family life and genuinely want to be part of their children’s lives.”

However, he noted that working fathers are showing more signs of stress and depression as both working fathers and working mothers try to balance their jobs and family.

Along with a shift to more involvement by dads has come a change in standards of parenting. A Pew Research Center shows parents spend 60 percent more time with their children than they did in the 1960s, when many women were stay-at-home moms.

Working mothers spend about the same amount of time with their children as they did in the 1960s, Farrough said, but the time fathers spend caring for children and helping to maintain the household has tripled.

Here are some of the main findings from the study:

New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and North Dakota, respectively, have the lowest percentage of kids living in poverty when dad is in the household. The states with the highest percentages are New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky.

The highest median family incomes (adjusted for inflation) are in Minnesota, Virginia, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Illinois. The lowest are in Hawaii, Oregon, California, Nevada and Maine.

The states with the lowest unemployment rates for dad with young kids are the Dakotas, Utah, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, which all tied for No. 1. The highest unemployment rates for those dads are in Virginia, West Virginia, Alaska, California and Illinois, respectively.

Oregon and Rhode Island tied in the ranking of states where working males have the shortest work days, followed by California, Nevada and Delaware in another three-way tie. The states of Louisiana, the Dakotas, Texas, Wyoming and Alaska tied for the longest work days.

Men’s life expectancy is highest in Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Connecticut and Vermont, respectively. It’s lowest in Mississippi, Alabama Louisiana, Arkansas and West Virginia.

The states with the lowest percentages of uninsured males are Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont, the District of Columbia and Minnesota, respectively. The highest percentage of uninsured males are found in Texas, Alabama, Florida, Nevada and Georgia.

Image: Fathers are taking more responsibility for child care and keeping the household running, but it’s easier in some states. (Photo by Shutterstock / Kristi Blokhin)

By Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff