The 10 Hardest-Working Cities in America

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Industrial worker in hardhat working hard but smiling
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This story originally appeared on Zippia.

Working hard or hardly working? If you’re like most American workers, the answer is you’re working pretty hard!

However, there is no denying that some cities have a more “dog eat dog” pace. Whether you’re curious if your city is one of them, or maybe you long for a city with a better work-life balance, we hit the data to find where workers are burning the candle at both ends.

To determine the hardest-working cities in each state, we ranked just shy of 4,000 cities on:

  • Average hours worked
  • Average commute time
  • Workers per household (employed labor force divided by the number of households)
  • Labor force participation rate

All of our data came from the most recent American Community Survey from the Census Bureau.

While time may not always equal work output, it is a good look into just how much of their lives people spend making a living (or getting to work to make a living).

Following are the hardest-working cities in the U.S.

10. Coachella, California

Coachella Valley, California
Tim Roberts Photography / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 42
Average commute time: 32.1 minutes
Workers per household: 1.7

Coachella may be known nationally for the prominent music festival, but it should also be known as a place a lot of hard workers call home.

In fact, this city is home to the hardest workers in California — not Silicon Valley or Los Angeles.

9. North Bay Shore, New York

Bay Shore area, New York
SevenMaps / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 41
Average commute time: 36.8 minutes
Workers per household: 1.7

New York is known as a fast-paced, bustling state, but where do the hardest workers in the state live?

The answer isn’t the Big Apple, it’s North Bay Shore. The 40-hour work week apparently isn’t the norm here: they work a whole extra hour, on average.

What really shows the impressive North Bay Shore work ethic though? The average 37-minute commute each way. That’s an extra 74 minutes beyond their work day, just going to work. Sounds exhausting.

8. Lexington, Nebraska

Lexington, Nebraska
Gestalt Imagery / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 42
Average commute time: 25.1 minutes
Workers per household: 1.7

Residents in Lexington, Nebraska, are no strangers to hard work. Long hours, toiling commutes and higher labor participation than most places prove Lexington is a city of hard workers.

7. Immokalee, Florida

Immokalee, Florida
Matthew Dicker / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 41
Average commute time: 34.7 minutes
Workers per household: 1.7

Immokalee is the hardest-working city in Florida, and the seventh-hardest-working city nationally.

What pushed Immokalee above other hardworking Florida cities? The back-breaking commute. On average, Immokalee residents are spending an hour in their car just coming to and from work.

6. Commerce City, Colorado

Commerce City, Colorado
photo-denver / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 42
Average commute time: 24.8 minutes
Workers per household: 1.7

Denver may be considered a laid-back place, but residents of its suburb of Commerce City, Colorado, are not.

The average commute in Commerce City is 24.8 minutes, one way. That’s in addition to the average 42-hour workweek.

5. Allendale, Michigan

Allendale, Michigan
SevenMaps / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 43
Average commute time: 19.4 minutes
Workers per household: 1.9

The fifth-hardest-working city is Allendale, Michigan.

Located 10 miles outside of Grand Rapids, many workers are trekking to the city for work, and when they get there, they are putting in long hours.

Each household averages 1.9 working members.

4. Gardere, Louisiana

Horace Wilkinson Bridge, West Baton Rouge Parish to Baton Rouge in East Baton Rouge Parish
Real Window Creative / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 44
Average commute time: 25.3 minutes
Workers per household: 1.6

Gardere, Louisiana, has an impressive labor force participation rate, with more adults working here than almost anywhere else.

All those working adults are putting in long hours on the clock, too. These stats make Gardere the hardest-working city in Louisiana.

3. College Park, Maryland

College Park, Maryland
Sharad Kambale / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 45
Average commute time: 29 minutes
Workers per household: 1.9

College Park, Maryland, is the third-hardest-working city in the U.S.

This Washington, D.C., suburb’s motto might as well be “work hard and work harder.”

College Park’s average workday is an hour longer than we expect in most places. Toss in long commutes, and a high number of workers per household and it’s easy to see College Park residents know what it’s like to work hard.

2. Forney, Texas

Forney, Texas
Typerperron / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 43
Average commute time: 21.7 minutes
Workers per household: 1.8

The second-hardest-working city in the country is Forney. Folks in this Texas city work 43 hours a week, on average.

That extra three hours from the typical 40-hour work week is an extra 12 hours each month — and an extra 144 hours a year.

1. Sudley, Virginia

Sudley, Virginia
Cvandyke / Shutterstock.com

Average weekly hours worked: 42
Average commute time: 24.7 minutes
Workers per household: 2

Sudley, Virginia, is another busy, hardworking suburb of D.C.

On average, Sudley workers aren’t working 9 to 5: The average work week is 42 hours. Toss in an average total commute of 50 minutes daily, and you might agree Sudley workers deserve a nap.

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