It is that time of year again, when the American worker is celebrated, which of course we all are! Monday, September 3, is Labor Day, and to find out in which states Americans are working the hardest, those curious researchers at Wallet Hub crunched a whole bunch of numbers.

This year, South Dakota came in 4th out of our 50 states, which when you think about it, really isn't much of a surprise. People in our plains state are notoriously hard-working. What is surprising to me, is that nationally Americans average almost 1800 working  hours per year and 52% of working Americans didn't take all of their vacation days last year!

The factors they investigated included: average workweek hours, workers with multiple jobs, commute times, volunteer hours and leisure time spent. Sadly, South Dakotans came in at the top for the number of workers toiling at multiple jobs. I say sadly, because that statistic implies that wages are lower than they should be for people to support themselves at one job.

There is another downside to this good news about hard-working American. Yes Americans are notoriously industrious, but working more hours does not necessarily mean we're more productive. Unfortunately, it's quite the contrary according to research which indicates we lag behind our global counterparts in many ways.

Americans work more hours, take less vacation time and retire later than the working populace in most other countries. So while it is flattering that we're being recognized as the hardest working humans on the planet, perhaps we should also take a moment and consider stepping out of the harness for just a bit everyday, hm?


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