How Utah stacks up for working moms in 2026

Each year, WalletHub releases a series of national rankings that help us understand how women and families are faring across the country. Utah is often in the spotlight — sometimes for difficult reasons, such as our longstanding last‑place ranking on women’s equality, and sometimes for more encouraging trends. This week’s release of the 2026 WalletHub’s Best & Worst States for Working Moms offers another important lens, placing Utah 24th of 51 and revealing both areas of progress and areas where we continue to fall behind.

For this ranking, WalletHub categorizes their findings into three main categories — Child Care Rank, Professional Opportunities Rank, and Work-Life Balance Rank — with a total of 17 key metrics that are each weighted differently. WalletHub pulls their data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware of America, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Council for Community and Economic Research, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, National Partnership for Women & Families, Knee Regulatory Research Center, and their own internal research.

The top 10 states include Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, District of Columbia, New York, and North Dakota, while the bottom five include Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Nevada.

Although not published in their online report, I was able to obtain more detailed data directly from WalletHub. Let me share what I found.

Childcare

Utah currently ranks 24th for the “Child Care Rank” category. Below are the state’s rankings for each indicator (1 = Best State; 51 = Worst State):

1. Daycare Quality: 2025 = 27, 2026 = 27
2. Childcare Costs (adjusted for the median women’s salary): 2025 = 6; 2026 = 16
3. Pediatricians per capita: 2025 = 40, 2026 = 33
4. School-System Quality: 2025 = 15, 2026 = 11
5. Share of Nationally Accredited Childcare Centers: 2025 = 50, 2026 = 38
6. Number of Childcare Workers per Total Number of Children: 2025 = 46, 2026 = 48

Professional Opportunities Rank

Utah ranks 41st in “Professional Opportunities Rank,” based on the following indicators:

1. Gender Pay Gap: 2025 = 50, 2026 = 51
2. Ratio of Female Executive to Male Executives: 2025 = 51, 2026 = 51
3. Median Women’s Salary: 2025 = 30, 2026 = 29
4. Share of Working Women Living with Economic Security: 2025 = 30, 2026 = 30
5. Share of Families in Poverty: 2025 = 3, 2026 = 3
6. Female Unemployment Rate: 2025 = 37, 2026 = 37
7. Gender-Representation Gap in Different Economic Sectors: 2025 = 49, 2026 = 49
8. WalletHub “Best States for Working from Home” Ranking: 2025 = 2, 2026 = 1

Work-Life Balance Rank

Utah ranks 11th in “Work-Life Balance Rank,” based on:

1. Parental-Leave Policy Score: 2025 = 43, 2026 = 43
2. Average Length of a Woman’s Work Week: 2025 = 1, 2026 = 1
3. Women’s Average Commute Time: 2025 = 10, 2026 = 10

Taken together, these indicators paint a picture of a state with real strengths but also persistent structural gaps. Utah performs well in areas tied to family‑friendly logistics — shorter work weeks for women, shorter commute times, strong school‑system quality, and a top national ranking for working from home. These are meaningful advantages for many families.

Yet the data also highlight several areas that should concern all Utahns. Our gender pay gap remains the widest in the nation, and women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in executive leadership roles. Childcare access and quality remain uneven, with low rates of nationally accredited centers and too few childcare workers relative to the number of children. And despite some improvement, Utah still lags in pediatricians per capita and continues to have one of the weakest parental leave policy scores in the country.

These patterns matter because they shape the daily realities, economic security, and long‑term opportunities of women and families across our state.

No single ranking can capture the full complexity of women’s experiences in Utah, but together these data points help us see where progress is happening and where meaningful work remains. When we ground our decisions in high‑quality research — including the ongoing work of the Utah Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University — we gain a clearer understanding of the systems that support or hinder women’s success. This knowledge empowers leaders, organizations, and communities to take strategic action. Our A Bolder Way Forward partners across the state are already working to strengthen childcare access, expand women’s professional opportunities, and build workplaces that support all families.

Utah has the talent, the commitment, and the collaborative spirit to move these numbers in the right direction. If we truly believe that families come first, then investing in the well‑being and advancement of women must remain one of our highest priorities.