Nearly a third of the top ten hardest-working places in the United States are right here in North Texas, including Dallas, according to a new ranking from WalletHub.
Dallas ranks as the fourth hardest-working city in the country, with Irving joining at No. 3 and Arlington squeezing in at No. 10. The expansive list assessed 116 major cities nationwide as part of the study.
“Many Americans view hard work as the path to achieving the American Dream… The average U.S. worker puts in 1,799 hours per year – 188 hours more than the average in Japan, 275 more than the U.K. and 456 more than Germany,” reads the WalletHub report.
To determine the ranking, the study’s authors compared the country’s most populated cities across two main dimensions: direct work factors and indirect work factors.
Direct work factors, which accounted for 80% of the weighted score, assessed items like the average hours worked per week, the employment rate, the share of households where no adults work, the share of engaged workers, and the rate of idle youth.
The second bucket, indirect work factors, comprised the remaining 20% of the score. This category looked at each city’s average commute time, the share of workers with more than one job, the annual volunteer hours per resident, and average daily leisure time, among other items.
Dallas earned an overall score of 75.55 points across both dimensions, compared to the hardest-working city, Anchorage, Alaska, which earned 80.15 points.
Notably, Dallas ranked fifth in the country for direct work factors but only No. 35 for indirect ones.
Irving, however, took the No.1 spot in the country for direct work factors, largely due to it possessing the lowest rate of households where no adults work (12%).
“One consequence of Irving residents’ hard work is the fact that they have a much lower amount of leisure time compared to people in most cities, the sixth-least in the nation. While Irving workers should be applauded for their dedication, it’s also important to avoid overwork and take some time to relax,” read the report.
While North Texas was heavily represented on the list, it was not the only region in the state to break the top 10. Austin also ranked highly, landing at No. 6 in the country.
While they did not make the top 10, Plano, Fort Worth, and Garland also had impressive showings at Nos. 13, 16, and 21, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, the least-hardest working city in the country, according to WalletHub?
Burlington, Vermont.