--- title: Moms in the Midwest Are More Likely to Work Outside the Home Than Anywhere Else in the US description: Led by South Dakota, the Midwest is the U.S. region with the highest percentage of working moms. authors: - name: Kerry Close url: https://money.com/author/kerry-close/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 182 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/kerryclose former_staff: true published: '2016-05-06T14:07:12.000Z' modified: '2016-05-06T14:07:12.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - maternity - Midwest - pubdesk - workforce word_count: 366 canonical: https://money.com/midwest-highest-rate-working-moms/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![The Midwest is the region with the highest percentage of working mothers.](https://img.money.com/2016/05/midwest-working-moms1.jpg) *The Midwest is the region with the highest percentage of working mothers.* If you grew up in the Midwest, it's likely your mom balanced her parenting responsibilities with a full- or part-time job. The Midwest as a whole is the U.S. region with the highest percentage of working moms, a [recent analysis](http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-has-second-highest-rate-of-working-mothers-in-the-nation/377808151/) from the *Minneapolis Star-Tribune* found. South Dakota leads the nation in terms of percentage of working moms (84% of women), followed by Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, where 81% of moms work full-time, part-time, or are actively looking for work. Wisconsin, where 80% of moms are in the work force, rounds out the top five. Nationally, 73% of women with children under the age of 18 are part of the labor force. Utah is the state with the lowest rate of working moms, at 63%. Researchers are unsure why the Midwest has an above-average percentage of working moms. "Maybe it’s cultural— Midwesterners are hard-working—or maybe it has to do with wage equality or perhaps less gender discrimination," said Katie Genadek, a research scientist at the University of Minnesota. "It's likely a multitude of things." In Minnesota in particular, many large companies make it easier for moms to keep working after they have kids, by offering benefits such as flex-time, job-sharing, generous parental leave, and childcare benefits. Still, the rates of labor force participation vary significantly among moms. For instance, in Minnesota, just 76% of moms with a child under the age of one are in the work force, while only 58% of moms with five or more children are working. Women of color are also less likely to be working moms. Divorced moms, however, are more likely to be working full-time than their fellow mothers. Moms' participation in the work force could also be a result of the fact that the wage gap is less severe in some Midwestern states than it is nationally -- -- which may give women more incentive to participate in the workforce. Nationwide, women earn 77% of what men earn, according to data from the [American Association of University Women.](http://www.aauw.org/files/2014/03/The-Simple-Truth.pdf) But in Minnesota, women make about 80% of their earnings of male workers. 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