PROVIDENCE – A new Oxfam report ranks Rhode Island the 15th best state in the country for workers overall, and 16th for working women, based on wages, worker protections and rights to organize.
The U.K.-based charitable organization released its “Best and Worst States to Work in America 2022” report on Thursday, which placed Rhode Island in its same overall ranking as last year. For the working women index, the state rose one spot from 2021, when it ranked 17th.
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While this year’s report places Rhode Island in the top third nationally, the Ocean State lags behind the rest of the New England region, aside from 28th-ranked New Hampshire.
Oxfam ranked Connecticut as the sixth-best state for workers and Massachusetts seventh. Oregon, California and New York, respectively, took the top three overall spots.
The report includes the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and considers policies enacted by July.
Oxfam scored the states based on the presence of 26 policies falling under the broader categories of wages, worker protections and rights to organize.
For these individual metrics, Oxfam ranked Rhode Island 20th for wage policies, and 11th for worker protections and rights to organize. The second index within the report also considers additional factors that commonly impact women, such as access to child care, elder care and abortion rights.
In a breakdown of the 26 policies used as an overall measure, Oxfam notes that Rhode Island fully or partially meets criteria including accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding workers; equal pay mandates across gender and race; paid sick leave; a collective bargaining requirement for public workers; and doesn’t have a “right to work” law.
But the state is also missing key policies that improve workers’ lives, the report notes, such as allowing municipalities to set a higher, local minimum wage; extending worker protections to domestic workers; providing heat safety standards to outdoor workers; and worker protections against wage theft retaliation.
New England, along with the Far West and Mideast regions, consistently outperforms the rest of the country in workers rights, the report notes, while the Southeast lags.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
