NEW: RI Ranks 45th for Working From Home
GoLocalProv News Team
NEW: RI Ranks 45th for Working From Home
WalletHub released the rankings on Monday, “in order to highlight which areas are thriving and which are struggling in this pandemic economy.”
"As COVID-19 has continued to spread in the U.S., state governments have ordered 'non-essential' businesses to close their buildings. This has left business owners with a few options: let employees work from home, lay them off or furlough them," writes WalletHub.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"Prior to this pandemic, just 25 percent of all workers in the U.S. had worked from home, and only 29 percent were able to do so. However, people who are allowed to work from home may not always have the best environment for doing so. The best work-from-home conditions include low costs, reasonable comfort and a high level of security," they continue.
To identify which states are most conducive to working from home, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 12 key metrics.
“The data set ranges from the share of workers working from home before COVID-19 to internet cost and cybersecurity. We also considered factors like how large and how crowded homes are in the state,” said WalletHub. “Together, these metrics show how feasible working from home is in terms of cost, comfort and safety.”
Contributing to the low ranking for the Ocean State?
Rhode Island was ranked #50 for having the "highest average retail price of electricity."
Rankings Revealed
The best state for working from home, according to WalletHub?
Delaware, followed by Washington, and New Hampshire.
Alaska was ranked as worst, with only Hawaii, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota ranking worse than Rhode Island.
“People who are working from home for the first time should treat it the same way as they would going to their place of work normally. They should continue to follow their daily work routine, just without the commute,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “It’s important for workers to be punctual and minimize the amount of distractions around them from things in their house that wouldn’t be at work, such as a TV. However, workers could consider getting a little extra sleep or having a better breakfast in the time they normally would have spent commuting.”