A new study finds Louisiana is the worst state for working mothers in 2026. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. WalletHub ranked Louisiana dead last for a second time in 2023, and for the first time in 2021, for a total of three times, with this 2026 ranking.
The personal finance website WalletHub performed the study by analyzing professional opportunities, childcare opportunities and work-life balance among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For that first dimension, Louisiana ranked second to last. As the Louisiana Radio Network (LRN) reports, Wallet-Hub Analyst Chip Lupo explained, “50th professional opportunities; that’s what measures things such median women’s salaries, gender pay gaps, shared families in poverty in which Louisiana ranks 51st, 43rd in the female unemployment rate.”
Lupo emphasized that the gender pay gap is one factor that really stands out . “In its defense, though, Louisiana is trying to at least address that. But you do have all these economic issues in front of you that’s going to make it extremely difficult.” In the other two key dimensions, Louisiana also ranked 50th in child care and 40th in work-life balance.
The state Senate just unanimously approved a measure to give teachers and other public school employees six weeks of paid parental leave after giving birth, adopting or fostering a child. It now heads to the House.
For context, while Louisiana ranks 51st for working mothers, Arkansas ranks 35th, Oklahoma is 39th and Texas is 43rd. WalletHub research reveals that, based on U.S. Census data, Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and in 2025 about 74% of moms with children under age 18 were employed. It also found that, on average, women earn only about 82% of what men make per hour, and just 9.4% of chief executives at S&P 500 companies are women. As Lupo lamented, it shows there's stil much work to be done to further bridge the gender pay gap.
