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Minnesota may be known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but when the Movoto Real Estate Blog decided to find out which places in it are working the hardest, we discovered that office water coolers are a lot more familiar to the state’s residents than any natural bodies of water. In the places we looked at for this ranking, workers are putting in an average of 38 hours a week on the job and spending an average of 24 minutes each way to get there.
The status of “hardest working place in Minnesota,” however, can only be awarded to one sweaty-browed city, and once we’d put in our work we found that this hard-earned honor goes to Chanhassen, MN. Like most employed folks, Chanhassen has co-workers—in this case the top 10 hardest working places in the state:
1. City of Chanhassen
2. City of Farmington (tie)
2. City of Waconia (tie)
4. City of Rogers (tie)
4. City of Prior Lake (tie)
6. City of Maple Grove
7. City of Woodbury
8. City of Savage (tie)
8. City of Lakeville (tie)
10. City of Eagan
You’re probably wondering how we worked this all out; how Chanhassen earned this promotion to the top of the list and if the working conditions in Savage are, well, actually savage. Fortunately, we kept all our paperwork so you can read the details for yourself below. First, though, let’s have a little presentation on the way we measured how hard a place actually works.
How We Made This Ranking Work
This isn’t our first time on the job of ranking places based on how hard they work. We’ve previously looked at the hardest working cities in the country and the hardest working mid-sized cities in the U.S. For this state-level ranking, we decided to focus on four main criteria to determine just how firmly each place in Minnesota we studied is putting its nose to the grindstone:
- Adjusted median household income (median household income compared to cost of living, higher being better)
- Average time spent commuting (higher)
- Unemployment rate (lower)
- Average hours worked per week (higher)
These criteria were applied to a list of 97 places in the state with populations of 10,000 people or more according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Each place was ranked from 1 to 97 in the individual criteria, with one being best. These individual ranking were then averaged into one overall Big Deal Score for each city, the lower the better, with the lowest score being the hardest working place. The data we used came from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey.
Now that you know how we made it all work, let’s roll up our sleeves and take a closer look at why each of the top 10 cities ranked so highly. In case you don’t see your city or town below, there’s a chance it may have made our ranking of the top 50 hardest working places, which you can find at the end of this post.
1. Chanhassen
This city of nearly 30,000 located about 20 miles from Minneapolis earned its spot atop our list of hardest working cities for two main reasons: its adjusted household income and average hours worked per week. In terms of the former, its households earn a median amount of $88,747 each year, adjusted for cost of living, the highest amount of any place we looked at for this ranking. As for hours worked, they average 39.7, again the highest in our ranking. If you’re a workaholic Minnesotan, chances are you live in Chanhassen.
Chanhassen’s unemployment rate of 4.6 percent was low enough to earn the city a 10th-place score in employment (a rank it shares with four other places). Finally, Chanhassen residents spend 27 minutes on average getting to work, the 26th-longest commute we found.
2. Farmington (tie)
The Minneapolis-Saint Paul suburb of Farmington worked long enough to place fourth overall in terms of average workweek length, at 39.4 hours. It actually tied for hours worked with two other places—Monticello and Maple Grove—the latter of which we’ll be talking more about soon.
When it comes to our other factors—employment rank, commute time, and adjusted household income—Farmington placed 16th, 17th, and 15th, respectively. The city has an unemployment rate of just 4.8 percent, workers there spend an average of 29 minutes getting to work,and households make $78,916 annually adjusted for the cost of living (102, or two percent above the national average).
2. Waconia (tie)
The second of two Minnesota cities to earn a No. 2 spot in our ranking, Waconia is also the smallest place in our top 10 at just under 11,000 people. What it lacks in population, it makes up for in work ethic, with residents putting in an average of 38.8 hours per week, the 16th-longest average work week we found.
As for our other criteria, Waconia ranked 10th for employment with a 4.6 percent unemployment rate, 13th for commute time at 30 minutes each way, and 13th for adjusted median household income at $81,262 per year.
4. Rogers (tie)
Rogers has fewer people working than Waconia (5.1 percent of its residents are unemployed versus 4.6 percent) but according to our findings, they’re working longer and spending more time getting to and from their jobs. The average workweek in Rogers is 39 hours, which earned the city 10th place in this category. Residents there spend 30 minutes getting to work on average, which is the eighth-longest commute on our list.
Rogers has an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent, tied for 38th with Maple Grove for the percentage of its residents who are working. For its adjusted median household income, it ranked fifth overall, at $84,589 annually.
4. Prior Lake (tie)
Prior Lake, population just under 23,000, tied for No. 4 overall but actually managed to outdo (or outwork) Rogers is one crucial area: employment. At 4.8 percent, the unemployment rate was low enough to earn Prior Lake a shared 16th place in this criterion, along with 14 other places we looked at.
6. Maple Grove
Known in part for its Shoppes at Arbor Lakes retail center, Maple Grove is home to near 62,000 people who spend so much time working we wonder if they have any left to shop. This city came in fourth overall (in a three-way tie) for hours worked, with a workweek averaging 39.4 hours. Those long hours are put in by a workforce that has only 5.1 percent unemployment, placing Maple Grove at 38th in that category.
When they do get to shop, Maple Grove residents have more buying power, as the city placed third overall for adjusted median household income at $85,896. Commutes for its residents last 29 minutes each way on average, tying for 17th in that criterion.
7. Woodbury
The second-largest city in our top 10, Woodbury is also second in hours worked. The employed portion of the city’s nearly 62,000 residents (95 percent, since its unemployment rate is an even 5 percent) put in an average of 39.6 hours per week.
Adjusted median household income for Woodbury is $83,075 per year, which puts the city in seventh place overall for this criterion. Its 27 minute one-way average commute time was good enough for 26th-place overall, a spot it shared with three cities in the top 10.
8. Savage (tie)
Despite its name, the workers in Savage don’t have to contend with arduous 80-hour workweeks. Instead, the average in our first No. 8 city is 38.5 hours, which puts the city at 28th place in that category. Only 4.8 percent of the residents there are unemployed, 16th for that criterion.
The other 95.2 percent who do have jobs spend an average of 28 minutes getting to work each day, and once there they earn an adjusted median household income of $82,567 annually. Those figures are good enough for Savage to place 22nd and 10th in those categories, respectively.
8. Lakeville (tie)
Our second No. 8 city, Lakeville is nearly twice as large as Savage at nearly 56,000 people. Where this city actually outperformed its fellow rank-holder is in adjusted median household income. Lakeville residents take home $84,844 each year after adjusting for the cost of living, which at 108 is 8 percent higher than the national average of 100. This showing in income earned Lakeville fourth place in this category.
Lakeville tied with Savage at 22nd for commute time, with workers spending 28 minutes getting to or from work on average. The two cities also tied in employment, with an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent putting them both at 16th place for that criterion. Lakeville ranked slightly lower than Savage—34th versus 28th—for its 38.2 hour average workweek.
10. Eagan
Finishing out our list like that one person at the office who always stays until the lights are turned off is Eagan, the largest city in our top 10. As these things sometimes go, Eagan didn’t place first (or even in the top 10) for any single criterion, but instead did rather well across the board. Kind of like a worker who’s good at a little bit of everything.
Eagan did best when it came to hours worked, where it placed 13th overall for its average 38.9 hour workweek. Next up, its unemployment rate of 4.8 percent put it in a multi-city tie for 16th place, Finally, its adjusted median household income of $73,909 and average commute time of 25 minutes earned it 25th- and 33rd-place finishes, respectively.
Minnesota Means Business
If you’ve taken the time to read this ranking, you obviously aren’t working as hard as the fine folks of Minnesota. Don’t worry—we’ll be getting to your state soon enough, slackers.
Speaking of those who take their on-the-clock obligations less seriously than others, Bemidji, MN should probably be worried about getting written up for being the least hard-working place in Minnesota. That’s right, we saw your average workweek of only 34.2 hours. Grand Rapids, MN, Brainerd, MN, Duluth, MN, and Hibbing, MN had better shape up, too, since they’re also in the bottom five. You’ll have to work a lot harder to get into the top 50 below.
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