According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. citizens work almost 1,800 hours each year, which is over 35 hours per week. That’s a lot compared to citizens of European nations like France, where the average person works under 1,500 hour per year, less around 29 hours per week.
That kind of work ethic is engrained in America’s (and perhaps even more so in Alabama’s) collective psyche, and has made us the most productive nation in human history. But it has also made our work-life balance difficult sometimes, and led to all kinds of stress-related health issues.
With that in mind, personal finance website NerdWallet set out to find the best cities in America for work-life balance, and ultimately ranked Tuscaloosa, Alabama near the top of the list nationally.
Divya Raghavan or NerdWallet explains their methodology:
Workers who seek a healthy work-life balance can reduce stress and improve the quality of their lives. NerdWallet crunched the numbers to find the best cities for work-life balance by analyzing the following factors in 536 cities across the U.S.:
1. Weekly hours worked: We included the mean hours worked per week by an average worker in each city.
2. Commute time: We included the mean travel time to work to account for daily commute time.
3. Income and cost of living: We factored in median earnings for full-time, year-round workers as well as median rent in each city to gauge how much people are earning on average.
Tuscaloosa came in at number five on the list and was the only Alabama city who made the cut.
Here are the stats NerdWallet calculated for Tuscaloosa:
Mean weekly hours worked: 33.1
Mean travel time to work (in minutes): 17.6
Median earnings: $32,274
Median gross rent: $696
“The home of the University of Alabama is also a manufacturing, service and retail hub,” said Raghavan. “Along with Tuscaloosa’s successful and diversified economy, people here enjoy a work-life balance where fans of the Crimson Tide can revel in the football culture, and others have the option to visit the city’s museums, performing arts centers and parks.”
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