Worker hammering roof

Best States to Work
in the US 2025

Where working families have opportunities to thrive—and where they struggle to survive.

Oxfam’s Best States to Work index shines a light on the best and worst states for working families in 2025. In its seventh edition, we take a fresh look at where states across the country are raising wages, strengthening worker protections, and defending the right to organize—and where some are selling workers short. Our 2025 index also highlights where states are rolling back labor protections for children–a shocking new development over the last few years.

Working families—no matter where they live—deserve support to thrive. But as Congress fails to pass legislation, geographic inequality is growing and access to fundamental rights and decent wages increasingly depends on where you call home. And the costs of this reality do not fall equally on all communities; these policy gaps actually worsen inequality across lines of gender, race, and class.

Find out more in our 2025 report  |  View the 2025 map for working women

Last updated: August 28, 2025

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Methodology

All data is based on laws and policies in effect as of July 1, 2025.

The index is based on state policies in three dimensions: wages (40% of overall score); worker protections (35% of overall score); and rights to organize (25% of overall score).

View full spreadsheets of the data.

Wage policies

Do workers earn a wage that is sufficient to provide for them and their families? Among the data points in this dimension:

  • Ratio of minimum wage to cost of living for a family of four.
  • Ratio of tipped wage to minimum wage.
  • Local control over minimum wages (lack of local control is often referred to as preemption, as the state overrides local rules).
  • Extension of the minimum wage to farmworkers.
  • Ratio of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to cost of living for a family of four.

Worker protection policies

This dimension considers the quality of life for workers, especially women and parents. Among the data points in this dimension:

  • Paid pumping breaks for breastfeeding workers.
  • Mandates for equal pay.
  • Paid family and medical leave; paid sick leave.
  • Fair and flexible scheduling.
  • Protection against sexual harassment in the workplace.
  • Extension of workers’ compensation to farmworkers.
  • Protections for domestic workers.
  • Heat standards for outdoor workers.
  • Warehouse worker protections.
  • Child labor protections.

Right to organize policies

This dimension asks whether workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively. Among the data points in this dimension:

  • State so-called “right-to-work” law (which suppresses union activity).
  • Public teachers’ rights to collective bargaining and negotiate wages.
  • Mandates for project labor agreements (PLAs): agreements that stipulate that contracts for public construction projects must go exclusively to unionized firms.
  • Mandates for protection against wage-theft retaliation.
  • Statewide policies on collective bargaining for public workers.