Crack the Whip
These North Texans are some of the hardest-working people in America
Research shows that Americans work 20 percent more than their counterparts in Europe, and that's certainly true in North Texas. Personal finance website WalletHub recently revealed the hardest working U.S. cities, and two of the top five are here: Plano and Irving.
Plano earns the No. 3 slot, with a hard-working score of 79.56. Irving is No. 5, scoring 76.09. At least Plano workers have a nice downtown in which to unwind at the end of a long day and on the weekends.
To come up with those scores, WalletHub's data analysts looked at six key metrics: average workweek hours, labor force participation rate, commute time, workers with multiple jobs, volunteer hours per resident, and leisure time spent on an average day.
Other Texas cities in the top 20 include Corpus Christi (No. 12), Garland (No. 18), and Houston (No. 20).
Dallas ranks No. 22, with a total score of 69.55 — about 10 points lower than Plano, even though WalletHub reports that DFW residents work about 160 hours per average workweek. More hard-working Texans can be found in Arlington, which ranks No. 24, followed by Austin and Fort Worth at Nos. 25 and 26, respectively.
In Lubbock, they must be pretty lazy (or smart, depending on how you look at it). At No. 92 out of 116, the city gets a hard-working score of 50.46. But they've got nothing on those living in Burlington, Vermont, who don't seem to mind catching a few Z's: The city is the least hard-working in the country, with a score of 18.66.
Folks in Anchorage, Alaska, are burning the midnight oil: The city holds the No. 1 spot, with a total score of 88.42.
